RemittancesGateway.org

LBP ties up with Italian post office

Monday, 29 August 2011 11:01

Source: Malaya.com

The Land Bank of the Philippines has tied up with Poste Italiane, the Italian government post office, to bring remittance service closer to Filipino workers in Italy.

Poste Italiane has 14,000 branches all over Italy and Filipinos can transact their remittance business with any of these branches, whether they have an existing account with Landbank or not.

Government-owned Landbank also has partnerships with Korea Post and Japan Post.

According to Landbank OFW Remittance Group head Roberto Vergara, remittance activities with the Japanese partners are going smoothly and gaining momentum despite the calamities that hit Japan in March.

"Even after the calamity in Japan, remittance inflow remained strong," said Vergara.

Filipinos in Japan are sending remittances via 233 Japan Post bank branches and 7,000 post offices with international services.

Funds credited to Landbank accounts can be withdrawn from any of the bank’s 900 ATM’s all over the country.

Landbank’s remittance transactions amounted to $683 million in 2010. Year to date, the bank is almost 50 percent on track to hit its target with $355 million and aims to hit $770 million for 2011.

Landbank remains strong in international remittances despite the impending effects of the plan of Saudi Arabia to reserve more jobs for locals.

"Saudization has not yet affected us," Vergara said.

Even the recent US credit rating downgrade has not had much impact on the remittance activities of Filipinos in the United States.

"They say that the US downgrade will be felt after two months, but I don’t see any problems coming from that area," Vergara said.