Personal Remittances Up 4% to $2.4B in September

Manila–(PHStocks)–Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos (OFs) rose by 4.3 percent year-on-year to reach $2.4 billion in September 2015, according to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). On a cumulative basis, personal remittances totaled $20.4 billion in the first nine months of 2015, an increase of 3.9 percent from the level registered in the same period a year ago, BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. announced.

For the nine-month period, personal remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more rose by 4.3 percent while those from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year grew by 3.3 percent.

Meanwhile, cash remittances from OFs coursed through banks totaled to $2.2 billion in September 2015, higher by 4.3 percent than the level posted a year ago. This brought cash remittances for the period January–September 2015 to $18.4 billion, representing a 4.1 percent growth year-on-year. Cash remittances from land-based and sea-based workers grew by 4.4 percent (to $14.1 billion) and 3.3 percent (to $4.3 billion), respectively. The bulk of cash remittances came from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Japan, Hong Kong, and Canada.

The continued demand for OF workers remained the key driver of sustained remittance inflows. Preliminary reports from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) indicated that for the period January–September 2015, total job orders reached 663,112, of which 41.6 percent have been processed. These job orders were intended mainly for service, production, and professional, technical and related workers needed in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

Similarly, the initiatives of banks and non-bank remittance service providers to expand their international and domestic market coverage through tie-ups abroad as well as the introduction of innovations in their remittance products continued to support the steady inflow of remittances. As of end-September 2015, commercial banks’ established tie-ups, remittance centers, correspondent banks and branches/representative offices abroad reached 5,491 from 4,587 as of end-September 2014.