US-Based Fintech to Launch Free Digital Remittance Card in PH

US-based financial technology firm Pomelo launches an instant, free cashless digital remittance service in the Philippines, banking on the country’s strong, albeit outdated international remittance system.

Pomelo founder and chief executive officer Eric Velazquez Frenkiel said in a virtual press briefing Wednesday that Pomelo has chosen the Philippines as its pilot country of operations, where the remittance system has been the same in over 20 years.

Frenkiel also added that remittance takes long to receive in the Philippines and remittance centers almost always charges service fees, which are challenges Pomelo aims to solve.

The fintech is looking to target the Philippines’ 12 million-strong overseas workers that are constantly sending money back to the country.

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, remittances to the Philippines reached an amount of USD33.19 billion according to a report from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. This is lower than the approximately USD35.17 billion the country received in remittances from 2019, according to data from Statista.

Of the USD33.19 billion the country received in 2020, Frenkiel said that USD1 billion went to different remittance centers for service fees. (GFB)