IAMTN proposes new industry wide standards to tackle de-risking

During 20-23rd March. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) held its Private Sector Consultative Forum. The forum was chaired by Mr. Juan Manuel Vega-Serrano, President of the FATF, in Vienna, Austria. During the event, FATF and its members had constructive discussion while engaging directly with private sector representatives on anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CFT) issues.

Remittances and de-risking were a key part of the agenda. It was during this event that, the International Association of Money Transfer Networks (IAMTN) presented its proposal on de-risking. There have been major changes in de-risking practices over the last few years and concern is growing across stakeholders, as this has an adverse affect on the entire remittance industry. Everyone agreed that this is a very complex issue and there is no "magic" solution to this.

IAMTN believes that an “International Industry Standard” specific to this industry is required.

As a part of this standard, firms will be required to undertake an independent annual audit in order to certify adherence with the standard.

IAMTN held discussions with a very wide array of bodies, such as, World Bank, IFAD, UNCDF, FATF, BBA, DIFID, CGAP, German Finance Ministry, FINCEN, US Treasury and UK Treasury and many more International Organisations for their feedback. Overall, it was very well received by the participants.

This is part of IAMTN’s continued effort to raise awareness of the importance of remittances within the financial sector, and to promote financial inclusion as a result of remittance mobilization through formal channels.

IAMTN is continuing the process of getting feedback from a very wide range of stakeholders, so if you have any feedback or questions, please feel free to contact us.

ABOUT IAMTN
The International Association of Money Transfer Networks is the only global international trade organisation that represents Money Transfer Industry / Payment Institutions providing cross border payments. Founded in 2005, provides a platform for industry partners to come together to discuss common challenges, industry initiatives, and create opportunities. IAMTN works closely with governments, regulators, regional associations and all other important stakeholders such as the World Bank, IFAD, BBA, DIFD to champion the creation of the most effective, safe, reliable and efficient payment system.

IAMTN, supported by MAMSB and FERG, condemns the use of bKash to facilitate illegal money remittances to Bangladesh

International Association of Money Transfer Networks (IAMTN), supported by the Malaysian Association of Money Service Business (MAMSB) in Malaysia and the Foreign Exchange and Remittance Group (FERG) in Dubai, condemns the use of bKash to facilitate illegal money remittances to Bangladesh

United Kingdom, 26th January 2017

There has been a considerable surge in unofficial remittances being sent to Bangladesh using bKash. bKash, a joint venture with BRAC Bank in Bangladesh, is a provider of mobile financial services to the underserved remote population of Bangladesh.

The transfers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Malaysia are being conducted through SIM cards from Bangladesh by individuals or businesses not licensed to undertake remittances in either jurisdictions. Sending money through unofficial channels can lead to exploitation, fraud and security risks.

On the 21st January 2017, a crackdown across Dubai unearthed an illegal money transfer racket run by 25 shops. All 25 shops, which were involved in the illegal activity, were not authorised to offer remittance services. This enforcement action was led by the Department of Economic Development (DED).

IAMTN along with FERG and MAMSB strongly condemns the use of illegal channels to remit money to Bangladesh and we urge the Central Bank of Bangladesh to take positive steps to curb the use of bKash to facilitate these illegal remittances.

About the International Association of Money Transfer Networks (IAMTN)

The International Association of Money Transfer Networks is the only global international trade organisation that represents Money Transfer Industry / Payment Institutions providing cross border payments. Founded in 2005, provides a platform for industry partners to come together to discuss common challenges, industry initiatives, and create opportunities. IAMTN works closely with governments, regulators, regional associations and all other stakeholders to champion the creation of the most effective, safe, reliable and efficient payment system.

About the Malaysian Association of Money Services Business (MAMSB)

The Malaysian Association of Money Services Business or MAMSB was formed on 22 August 2013 and officially launched on 9 January 2014. It is the national association for money service business (MSB) companies in Malaysia which have been granted licences under Money Services Business Act (MSBA) as well as those enterprises that have been approved as MSB agents to principal licensees under the MSBA.  The members of MAMSB engage in three main types of money services businesses namely money-changing business, remittance business and wholesale currency business which supports the retail money-changing business.

Today, MAMSB has 354 members (licensees under the Money Services Business Act 2011 and 129 associate members (money services business agents) with over 2,500 customer touchpoints across Malaysia.  The MSB industry in Malaysia employs approximately 10,000 people and has an industry total turnover of RM100billion. MAMSB’s vision is to be a respectable driving force to modernise and enhance professionalism of MSB industry while championing the interest of Members.

About Foreign Exchange and Remittance Group (FERG)

Foreign Exchange and Remittance Group [FERG] is a non-profit organization formed based on the initiative of the Central Bank of UAE. The FERG comprises of companies engaged in the business of money exchange and remittances from large sized companies with over 100 branches, to single branch outlets to come on a common platform and work towards mutual benefit.
The initiative to form the Foreign Exchange & Remittance Group (FERG) started in the year 2003, wherein, some of the large and leading exchange companies decided to come together and hold regular meetings to discuss current market situations, opportunities and threats facing the exchange industry. This initiative gained momentum with the Central Bank Governor calling a meeting of all leading exchange companies in January 2004 to discuss the challenges facing this Industry. One of the important outcomes of the meeting with the Governor was the initiation of the Steering Committee, comprising of 10 leading exchange companies, who relentlessly worked towards bringing in most of the exchange companies to a common platform.
Over the next couple of years, the Steering Committee held regular meetings and took up issues with various regulatory and government authorities such as, Central Bank of the UAE, Reserve Bank of India, Dubai Police, Human Resources Committee for Emiratization, etc., with an objective to facilitate easier operational norms & to create a conducive business environment for the money exchange industry in the UAE. In the course of time more exchange companies joined the Committee as Rotating Members to strengthen and make it more vibrant.
The efforts of the Committee to register the Foreign Exchange & Remittance Group (FERG) were successful with the registration of the Group with Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry in October 2008.
The first General body Meeting of FERG was held on 29th November 2008. The number of members has since grown to 73, who aggregately cover over 90% money exchange and remittance business in the UAE. Meetings of the Representative Committee and all members are held at regular intervals.
FERG is registered with Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the body concerned with patronizing and supporting the various activities of the private sector in the United Arab Emirates. 

Tempo Money Transfer 2016 annual results issued - transactions up 160 percent

International money transfer operator, Tempo Money Transfer, has issued the results of its operational and financial activity in 2016.

The Paris-headquartered remittances provider said in a statement that the number of agent locations increased to more than 230 in Germany and France by the end of 2016, against 70 in 2015.

The company's main focus of activity is sending money from these two countries to the rest of the world. This makes the indicator very important for its operations. 

The president for the Germany and France–based company, Mr Jeffrey Phaneuf, reported that in 2016, Tempo processed over 63 thousand transactions, up 160 percent from the year 2015. He said also that gross revenue reached € 32.6 million. “The total number of locations where services are available, increased to reach 195,000, while the number of countries has almost reached 120 by the end of 2016,” Mr Phaneuf said.

“2016 in particular has become a very important year for the company because Tempo Money Transfer launched its online payment option this year. Now clients do not need to visit Tempo's locations to send money. A transfer can be originated from the website, www.tempo.eu.com, and the service is available to clients from all over the EU.

The first stage of the project covered 35 countries, including such large markets as the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, India, Brazil, Russia, Albania and Armenia. The online service became possible due to the significant success the company achieved working on the development of its international partnership network, its state-of-the-art IT technologies and the high-profile reputation it enjoys internationally, he said.

In 2016, the system significantly widened its spectrum of services. It currently includes traditional cash payout, account-crediting, home delivery, cell phone topping up and remote bill payments in various countries.

“We are specialised in outbound transactions from one of the most vibrant EU markets, based in France and Germany. We pay special attention to developments in various regions around the globe. The demand for services comes mostly from working migrants. We can clearly see the increasing trend in the number of migrants settling in European countries. Hence the demand for low cost and quality services is growing,” Mr Phaneuf said. “In 2016, Tempo diligently worked on building up its activities, expanding its payout location network and widening its service range. It actively participated in integration with global e-payment platforms,” he added.

 “We place emphasis on low transaction costs. We understand that this makes for an effective decrease in the black market and brings money transfers into the open, regulated sphere. This benefits the host country's economy and our customers.”

Tempo Money Transfer and Samsara Money Transfer have launched option of account crediting in Nepal

The France and Germany-based international remittances service provider, Tempo Money Transfer, and its partner in Nepal, Samsara Money Transfer, have launched the option of account crediting in Nepal. This is the next stage of collaboration between the two companies that started at the beginning of 2015.

Now clients are able to credit money sent from Tempo’s locations in Europe to recipients’ accounts at Samsara's partner banks in Nepal. Up until now, only the cash pick-up option was available.

Over 1,800 agent locations - finance companies, retailers, corporates and travel agents - operate on the b2b model using Samsara’s system. The network covers all of Nepal's provinces, including small towns and settlements.

The number of Tempo locations where clients can send money from Germany and France is currently over 170.

The president of Tempo France, Mr Jeffrey Phaneuf, said, "The ties between Nepal and the EU are growing ever more. The further development of this project, namely the introduction of account–crediting, will provide new options to send money to Nepal. The client market is very broad, including workers, migrants, students, businessmen, all staying and working in Europe. They expect high quality services and affordable rates. That is our main angle and focus, working with our partners at Samsara.”

The director of marketing and business development for Samsara Money Transfer, Mr Suraj Chetri, said that the broadening of the service spectrum gives yet more impetus to further grow the client portfolio and reach new financial and operational heights.

“We are continuously improving the quality of the services we provide to our clients and are always looking for new options to increase the level of convenience and effectiveness for our clients. Collaboration with Tempo presents a way to step up our activities in a very important segment such as Europe. That is why we are very happy to expand our work with them in implementing new products,” he said.

Tempo Money Transfer has integrated into the Stellar Blockchain

Tempo Money Transfer, has successfully completed integration with the financial platform, Stellar. 

Clients are able to send global remittances from Europe through the Stellar e-wallet, online or by visiting Tempo locations. At launch Tempo is integrated via stellar with Coins.ph which allows clients to send funds to anyone in the Philippines by using their name and mobile phone number. The recipient receives a notification on their mobile phone and a Coins.ph account is created for the recipient automatically. The client can then receive the funds out of their Coins.ph wallet, initiate a bank transfer, request home delivery as well as cash pickup throughout the Phillippines. 

In his comments to the launch of the joint project, the CTO for Stellar, Mr Jed McCaleb said that these partnerships bring the company closer to one of its goals: substantially lowering global remittance costs by improving cross-border payments, making them more efficient.

““This is the start of achieving our mission of enabling a worldwide financial network that anyone can use, ” he said.

Tempo's CTO, in turn, noted “the blockchain technology that backs networks such as Stellar will revolutionize international payments. In particular Stellar solves many of Bitcoin's problems such as Exchanges getting hacked, higher transaction throughput,  anti-terrorist protocol and provides an average of  3 second settlement vs Bitcoins 10 minutes. It also provides a standard api that like email could transform the world,” said Mr Anthony Barker.

“This will allow our clients to send funds faster, more reliably and for less money.”

Recently, the company has actively been working on the introduction of new products and transfer channels, particularly implementing its option to send money online from its website. 

This project will feature a significant geographical spread and wide range of opportunities for customers.  The Paris-headquartered company has been very active in the Philippines in particular.

Tempo Money Transfer’s services are now available in nearly 12,000 locations across the country, the total number of locations in the Asian region having increased to over 22,000.

According to the latest statement, the number of cash agent locations soared to more than 218 in Germany and France.

The company's main focus of activity is sending money from Europe to the rest of the world. The total number of locations where its services are available, increased to reach 195,000 while the number of countries has reached almost 120.

Tempo Money Transfers sponsored premier of Bengali film in Paris

On November 17^th, the international money transfer system, Tempo Money Transfer sponsored the premier of Bengali film "Aynabaji” in Champs Élysée cinema theater, in Paris. 

With a $67.5 mln. box office,  this film is considered one of the most successful productions in the Bengali film industry.

Mr. Jeffery Phaneuf, president for Tempo Money Transfer and Mr. Sayed Khan, commercial director, South Asia for the company, represented Tempo Money Transfer at the event.

“It is very important that the company does not miss the occasion to participate in such events. They give us the opportunity to become even closer to our customers, understand their cultural needs and the importance of the job we do,” said Mr. Phaneuf.

“Tempo’s team is dedicated to providing excellent customer service, through extensive location coverage, a broad spectrum of options and excellent quality service. Our priorities are European quality and reliability with an accent on low transaction costs for wires. This makes for an effective decrease in the black market and brings transactions into the open, regulated sphere. This benefits the host country's economies and our customers, giving new space for services at affordable rates,” Phaneuf said. 

Tempo Money Transfer expects decline in the Russian remittances market to slow down in 2016

One of the largest European remittances markets, Russia, will demonstrate a slowdown in decline in 2016, the experts at Tempo Money Transfer say. However, the segment will still decrease in the current year, the France and Germany–based money transfer provider says. The European licensed remittances provider entered the CIS and Russian market this year through a strategic partnership with Unistream bank.

Due to sanctions and local currency devaluation against the American dollar, the volume of remittances of the CIS top donor country fell from over $20 billion in 2014 to $13 billion in 2015.

“The economy slightly adapted to the negative trends and demonstrated a few positive signs in the current year. However it is way too early to talk about full recovery,” Souren Hayriyan, member of the board of directors of Tempo Money Transfer, said. 

The company expects the decline to slow down and sees the remittances volume at $10 billion in 2016, still a 23 percent decline compared to a year before.

The ruble devaluation is the main reason for this, Tempo says.

Since 2013, when remittances reached its  $27 billion maximum, the market volume decreased by nearly 3 times.

The number of transactions is also expected to decrease, by around 20 percent, Hayriyan of Tempo said. 

Its decline is due to the Russian market now being much less attractive for working migrants after the crisis started. He went on to say that they originate over 80 percent of demand for the money transfers in the former USSR countries.

Another trend is the increase in average number of transactions. In 2015, the Russian government introduced licenses for working migrants, requiring a fixed annual fee for the right to remain in the market, regardless of income. This made life more difficult for low-income migrants. The migrants’ incomes remained the same, which whittled away at remittances of low income workers. It contributed to the decline in transaction numbers, while increasing the average cheque (from $380 in 2015 to $ 420 in 2016). 

Hayriyan said also that competition drastically increased. Some companies have introduced tariff-free remittances, making money on exchange rates only.

Summarizing, he said that it is now very difficult to make any further predictions on what direction the market will go. “In such a situation when the economy goes through what is not the best time in general, the remittances market will generally follow the same path.”

Tempo Money Transfer and Uttara Bank to increase cooperation after Paris meeting

High profile delegations of the international money transfer operator, Tempo Money Transfer, and one of the leading Bangladesh banks, Uttara, held a meeting at Tempo's headquarters in Paris.

The president of Banque du France-licensed Tempo, Mr Jeffrey Phaneuf, and its commercial representative, Mr Sayed Khan, represented the company at the meeting.

The other party was represented by Mr Maksudul Hasan, deputy managing director, and Mr Khandaker Ali Samnoon, general manager of Uttara Bank.

During the meeting, both parties expressed keen interest to collaborate further in advancing the EU-to-Bangladesh corridors, particularly from France and Germany to Bangladesh.

"We discussed in detail operational items, like enhancing our IT interface to improve and speed up transactions and our ability to quickly confirm payment status, as well as obtaining better exchange rates for our clients," said Mr Phaneuf in his comments about the meeting.

Both parties agreed that the project has proved its importance and potential.

"We agreed to further improve service and ultimately achieve higher wire volumes and revenues."

Mr Maksudul Hasan said that the plans to drastically step up the joint venture have a great chance for success.

“Demand is on the rise in Bangladesh and the number of clients is growing too. In combination with Uttara's strong position in the market, this creates a solid foundation for all business indicators to grow," he said.

Both parties found the meeting instrumental in further developing their business.

Tempo and Uttara started a joint project in June 2015.

The collaboration enables clients to receive money sent from Tempo's locations in France and Germany, and collect cash in Uttara Bank’s branches in Bangladesh. Uttara Bank Limited operates through more than 200 online branches, spread across urban and rural areas, with more potential business locations within Bangladesh.

Tempo has over 160 locations in France and Germany, focusing on outbound transactions. It continues to actively develop its partnership network in Asia.

The total number of locations where services are available increased to 195,000 while the number of countries has almost reached 120.

Online money transfer specialist Fonmoney speeds up customer verification with HooYu

Identity confirmation defends money transfer industry from fraudsters with forged passports and fake identities  

London, UK – October 14, 2016 – Identity confirmation provider HooYu today announced that their identity confirmation technology is helping online money transfer specialist Fonmoney to fast track its KYC (Know Your Customer) procedures for welcoming and verifying new customers.

Prior to using HooYu, Fonmoney sometimes had to use man-hours to manually review ID documents before transactions could proceed as part of Anti-Money Laundering compliance requirements. This sometimes meant that customer approvals could take two to three hours if the information given was incomplete, meaning that customers who transacted overnight might not be approved until the next working day.

HooYu is now being integrated into the Fonmoney site so that users can now quickly and easily be verified through HooYu’s unique combination of digital footprint analysis, ID document authentication, facial biometrics and identity scoring. Once the customer has passed the automated HooYu ID confirmation, they can send money abroad to friends or family quickly and easily with low fees and great exchange rates. 

The team at Fonmoney was well prepared for the risks of online money transfer and could see that fraudsters were trying to transact with fake passports and stolen payment card details. Fonmoney looked to database-led ID checks to verify their customers, but with ten local language sites already live, they needed a service that would work equally well for customers using Irish, Turkish, Polish, Romanian and French corridors amongst others.

Matthias Wurmböck, Managing Partner at Fonmoney said, “On one hand, using  HooYu means that we are not just ticking compliance boxes and preventing fraud, but more importantly to us, HooYu helps us make the journey for all of our customers more efficient and smooth. They have been a good partner to us in helping to ensure that we are in line with customer identity checking compliance, while localising their platform together to ensure the best possible customer experience as we continue to grow into new markets.” 

David Pope, Marketing Director at HooYu said, “The money transfer industry needs an identity confirmation service to help verify identity where traditional database checks fall short. Our approach of not just checking an ID document, but looking at the wider picture by using digital footprint analysis and facial biometrics in conjunction with ID document authentication helps firms like Fonmoney to build true confidence that their customers are indeed, who they say they are.”     

Veronica Studsgaard, CEO at the International Association of Money Transfer Networks said, “Money remitters are constantly striving to meet the challenges of ever growing remittance volumes and increased regulatory requirements.  KYC technologies like HooYu are helping remitters to verify and welcome new customers, speed up the flow of money and to meet regulatory requirements.”

HooYu was established as a global identity verification platform to help businesses authenticate customer identity. 

The HooYu service is integrated into a merchant’s site and customers are asked to take three simple steps: 

• Take a selfie
• Share their online identity such as Facebook or LinkedIn and take a photo of their driving licence, ID card or passport. 
• HooYu extracts and scores the identity information from the user’s online identity and ID documents, HooYu then authenticates their ID document and completes a biometric facial verification. 

About HooYu 

HooYu is a global identity confirmation service used not only by businesses that need to check their customers are who they say they are, but also by consumers who want to check another person’s identity before they proceed with an important or sensitive transaction.

HooYu's approach is to use universal tokens of identity including social media, digital footprints, identity documents and facial biometrics to confirm identity.

HooYu cross-references and analyses data from a person’s digital footprint to confirm their real-world identity. HooYu also extracts and verifies data from ID documents at the same time as authenticating the ID document and conducting a biometric facial check comparing a selfie of the customer with the facial image on their ID document. 

https://business.hooyu.com/ 

For further information contact david.pope@hooyu.com 

About Fonmoney

Fonmoney is an FCA regulated money transfer company whose mission is to improve the way migrants send money home. The Fonmoney aim is to simplify remittance, be affordable and speak the migrant’s language. The Fonmoney team is a broad mix of former bankers, mobile developers and scientists representing more than ten nationalities.

Fonmoney offers two different services: sending money home via direct bank deposit or toping up mobile phone. 

https://www.fonmoney.com/ 

For further information contact: matthias@transpaygo.com 

Tempo Money Transfer issued Q3 results. Over 180 locations in Germany and France

International money transfer system, Tempo Money Transfer issued the results for the period July - September of 2016.

The Paris-headquartered remittances provider said in a statement that the number of agent locations soared to more than 180 in Germany and France. 

The company's main focus of activity, is sending money from these two countries to the rest of the world, which makes the indicator very important for its operations, said the president of Tempo, Mr. Jeffrey Phaneuf. 

He went on to say that the total number of locations where services are available, increased to reach 195,000 while the number of countries has almost reached 120.

The spectrum of services includes traditional cash payout, account-crediting, home delivery, cell phone topping up and remote bill payments in various countries.

Mr. Phaneuf said that by the end of Q3, the system has achieved a new operational level. 

Within July-September, the company successfully stepped up its international network, particularly in Africa.

For example, the France and Germany - based remittances provider, which already holds a solid presence in Africa, and has rolled out its pay-out networks in Nigeria, Guinea, Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania, Sierra Leone and Comoros, launched a project in some of the Central African and West Africa nations including – Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Congo, Gabon, and Rwanda. The completion of the project provides the customer with more than 400 pay-out locations.

“As a company specialized in outbound transactions from one of the most vibrant EU markets, (France and Germany) , we pay special attention to the developments in Africa and Asia. The demand for services is coming mostly from working migrants. We can clearly see the increasing trend in the number of African and Asian nationals settling in European countries. Hence the demand for low cost and quality services is growing,” Mr. Phaneuf said.

Phaneuf said that in 2016, the company diligently follows its main goals and principles, looking at increasing financial indicators in each project. 

“We continue to place emphasis on low transaction costs. This makes for an effective decrease in the black market and brings money transfers into the open, regulated sphere. This benefits the host country's economy and our customers.”

Tempo Money Transfer enters Canadian market

The France and Germany - based international remittance provider, Tempo Money Transfer signed an agreement with Miami-headquartered company, CAM Transfer, to commence joint operations in the Canadian market.
The integration project completion will enable clients to send money
from over 180 Tempo locations in Germany and France and collect cash in CAM's agent locations in Canada.
CAM Transfer is in partnership with over 40 agents, according to general manager for the company, Mr. Fred Tony. 
The president for Tempo, Mr. Jeffrey Phaneuf said it is the first project for the company in Northern America.
"We see great potential in this remittances corridor (Germany and France to Canada). This is due to growing economic ties and quite large various ethnic communities, present in all three countries," he said in his comments of the large scale joint venture. He went on to say that according to company estimations, the market volume is currently in the range of $30 - $32 billion, with the potential to grow further.
He said the segment has experienced between 14-15-percent growth
year-on-year. Mr. Phaneuf added that Tempo has been actively carrying out its program of international development.  It's wide range of services, from account crediting to cash pick-up and cell phone topping, is available in over 120 countries, with the number of locations exceeding 195,000.
Mr. Tony is also very positive about the project's prospects.
"We will be able to provide clients with excellent quality of service.
Given the positions of Tempo and CAM in the market and growing demand, we are confident in our opportunities to jointly achieve new operational and financial heights. We believe the collaboration is going to be very fruitful."

Number of Tempo Money Transfer locations in France and Germany soars above 180

The number of locations of the international Paris-headquartered money transfer operator, Tempo Money Transfer, has exceeded 180 in Germany and France together. The company is specialized in transferring money from these countries to destinations all over the world.

It operates through an agent network and its own dedicated store in Paris. 

"Germany and France are two of the main donor countries in the remittances market. This is due to their excelling economies and vast number of migrants from others countries living and working there," said the president of Tempo,  Mr Jeffrey Phaneuf.

He went on to say that the working migrants' share in the demand for money transfers exceeds 80 percent.

"Given the exceptional role that Germany and France play in the global remittances market, Tempo is diligently working on extending its network in these two countries." 

Mr. Phaneuf added that the company has a very large international payout network.  Tempo recently reported that it has 195,000 partner locations where clients can collect transferred funds. The number of countries where services are available, exceeds 120.

Mr. Phaneuf said that intensive international development makes collaboration with Tempo increasingly attractive for potential partners.

Recently the company concluded 10 large-scale integration projects in Europe and Asia.

The spectrum of services, offered internationally, now includes cash-to-cash transactions, account crediting, remote bill payments and cell phone top-ups.

A project to make remote bill payments has started in the Philippines. Its successful completion now enables clients to settle their utility bills in the Philippines, from Tempo's locations in France and Germany. These include account payments for electricity, water, internet, mobile services, cable TV, insurance and health.
 The Paris-headquartered remittance system has commenced operations in Vietnam and Mongolia. In these two Asian countries, Tempo started its collaboration with one of the CIS-leading remittances providers, Unistream, which has created great potential to build its payout network in the former USSR countries and Eastern Europe.

“We are looking at improving our financial indicators, as well as launching and developing our online presence. We will place an emphasis on low transaction costs. This will cause an effective decrease in black market operations and bring money transfers into the open, regulated sphere. This benefits the host country's economy and our customers,” said the president for the Banque du France-licensed company.

Tempo Money Transfer starts operations in Cuba and Haiti, in alliance with 'More Money Transfers'

International remittances provider, Tempo Money Transfer, started its operations in Cuba and Haiti in alliance with 'More Money Transfers'. The Paris- headquartered company and Uruguay-based operator successfully established the joint project and commenced remittances from Tempo's locations in France and Germany with the option to receive funds in More Money's locations in the two Caribbean countries. 

The number of locations exceeds 300 in Cuba and reaches nearly 500 in Haiti.

The service opens the door for account-crediting in Cuba.

Both parties believe that the project has  great potential.

“Just recently Cuba started taking its first steps towards integrating into the global economy, which means more prospect for tourism and, in future, likely more options for Cubans to travel and work in foreign countries,” said the president for Tempo Money Transfer, Mr. Jeffrey Phaneuf. 

He said also that the demand for the services of genuine European standards is on the rise in Haiti, which has traditionally been one of the most lucrative tourist destinations.

The Montevideo - headquartered company said that the joint project in which the two companies successfully commenced, is a significant step forward, even to the regional money transfer market.

“Cooperation between Tempo and us is focused on a very important and promising money transfer corridor. The start manifests its further development throughout all Latin America, where our company has a strong position and where there has been a stable demand for EU-quality services,” the company said. 

Currently, Tempo Money Transfer operates over 70 locations in France and Germany. The EU-licensed remittances provider has been very active on the international money transfer curcuit.

For the past 12 months it has released ambitious projects in Asia, Northern and Equatorial Africa, as well as in Europe.

According to the company’s 2015 results, Tempo Money Transfer operates in over 100 countries and the number of service locations exceeded 180 thousand.

One of the main priorities of the company, is an introduction of low transaction costs, which makes for a decrease in the black market and bringing remittances into regulated view.

YES Bank ties-up with Global IME Bank

YES Bank becomes the first bank in India launching Indo-Nepal remittance for Nepalese residents in India. 
YES Bank, India’s 5th largest private sector bank, today announced the launch of its Indo-Nepal Remittance through its collaboration with 3 Banks in Nepal viz. Global IME Bank, Mega Bank and NMB Bank.
Nepalese migrants can now register for this program with Nepalese ID documents and initiate remittance. They can deposit cash and this money will be remitted to the beneficiary’s bank account or cash will be disbursed though over 3000 agent points and 100+ branches of Global IME Bank, Mega Bank and NMB Bank in Nepal.
There are over 4 million Nepalese citizens in India, remitting an estimated amount of INR 30,000 Crores annually, of which only about 10% go through formal banking channels. 

Peru remittances

Remittances to Peruvian amounted to US$721 million in 2016's second quarter.
Representing an 8% increase from the same period last year, Peru's Central Reserve Bank (BCR) reported

First position by USA. Remittances from the United States accounted for 26% of the total (between April and June 2016).

Chile held the second position (10%) with a 13% growth, followed by Italy (up by 38%).

Likewise, remittances from expatriates in Japan and Argentina grew by 9% and 25%, respectively. However, Spain-originated flows decreased 2%.

Tempo starts large project in Central Africa

Tempo Money Transfer, in collaboration with its partner Express Union has begun a large project in Africa, where the France-based company has been carrying out intensive development. 
The focus of the project, is the Central African nations – Cameroon, Chad, DRC , Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Congo, Gabon, West Africa and Rwanda.
The completion of the project provides the customer with more than 400 pay-out locations, excluding those of EU’s local agents.


Clients are now able to send money from Tempo locations in Germany and France and collect the cash in outlets operated by Express Union and its local agents in the countries mentioned. The new network covers the countries’ big cities and towns, while outlets are safely located in business areas and shopping malls where the businesses successfully operate.
In his comments at the start of the project, president for Tempo, Mr. Jeffrey Phaneuf said that with its over $90-billion money transfer market, Africa features tremendous potential for ambitious players.


Tempo expect a 1.5 percent segment growth in 2016.
The company has rapidly been stepping up its network in the market. It recently rolled out its pay-out network in Nigeria, Guinea, Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania and Sierra Leone.
 The company together with one of Africa's leading financial technology providers, are in the process of launching a large-scale project in Nigeria.
 It enables clients to send money from Tempo's locations in Germany and France, to credit the funds into any bank account or mobile wallet, of a cell operator in Nigeria. 


The Nigerian project is very close to completion. According to Tempo’s estimates, this remittances segment accounted for over $25 billion.
“Development in Africa is one of our top priorities. The key elements of the strategy here are enlarging the size of the pay-out network, as well as widening the product spectrum, this includes not only account crediting, but in the future, bill payments. African countries have rapidly developing infrastructure and intellectual potential for this,” Mr. Phaneuf said.

Alipay and Ingenico

Ingenico, the Paris-based payments software and terminals, has signed a partnership with Alipay. This new agreement will enable many of the estimated 12.5m Chinese tourists visiting Europe to pay for goods and services using the platform.

Bangladesh remittances

Bangladesh received $503.78 million in remittance during the first 12 days of the current month of August.

Bangladesh Bank statistics shows that maximum remittance came through private commercial banks as they received $334.09 million while the nine foreign banks $5.51 million.

From UAE to Egypt

The World Bank has released figures showing that Egypt is the country that receives the highest amount of remittances in the MENA region. In 2015, the country received an estimated $19.7bn in remittances from around the world, of which $1.83bn was received from Egyptians residing in the UAE.

Remittances play an important role in the Egyptian economy, contributing to 6.8% of the country’s GDP in 2014.

Remittances startup Ozaremit

Ozaremit recently secured a six-figure investment from three angel investors focused on the emerging markets. Thibault Launay, Romain Girbal and Célia Grémy are French investors who have an interest in early to mid-stage startups including an African classifieds service called Afrimalin that’s active in 8 Francophone countries.

According to the information shared by the Ozaremit co-founders Ibrahima Soumano and Takwana Tyaranini the three investors have collectively acquired a significant amount of equity in Ozaremit.

This capital will be used for product improvement (there’s work being done on the web interface and a mobile app is also in the pipeline) and some efforts at gaining visibility through an aggressive marketing campaign.

It’s also meant to open up Ozaremit to new services with focus areas set to be mobile money and goods (invoice payment) remittances. This fulfils the initial plans that the Ozaremit co-founders spoke of a few months ago.

Their service started off with one service focused on mobile (ie the airtime remittances) before jumping into the lucrative money transfer track.

The Ozaremit team says it’s confident that with the growth it is registering in users and revenue right now it will be able to secure more capital before the end of 2016. It is eyeing another 6 figure investment through the network of  international business angels that it is working with.

If successful, the team says that its valuation should exceed 2 million euros by the beginning of 2017.