DIGITAL payments firm PayMaya Philippines, Inc. announced on Thursday its partnership with American money transfer company MoneyGram International, Inc. for real-time fund transfers from the United States (US) to the Philippines.
“Through this partnership, families of overseas Filipino workers across the country can quickly and conveniently receive funds from their loved ones in the US in their PayMaya Visa card,” PayMaya said in an e-mailed statement.
US-based customers can use the mobile app of MoneyGram or its website to send money to any PayMaya Visa cardholder in the Philippines.
Kamila Chytil, MoneyGram chief operating officer and leader of the company’s digital business, expects the new offering to “drive digital growth” and improve customer experience.
“In the Philippines today, majority of Visa debit and prepaid cards are enabled to receive real-time payments via Visa’s real-time push payment solution, Visa Direct,” Dan Wolbert, Visa country manager for the Philippines and Guam noted.
Citing data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Mr. Wolbert said overseas Filipino workers had made a total of $11 billion for US-based remittances in 2019.
“Money transfers from the US contributed close to 40% of total remittances in the Philippines. In this digital age, we believe it is important to introduce solutions that can benefit our cardholders’ lives, including making cross-border remittances hassle-free and efficient,” he added.
PayMaya is a subsidiary of Voyager Innovations, Inc., the digital innovations company of PLDT Inc. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Arjay L. Balinbin
