- Partnership will make it easier for Burmese migrants in Thailand to send remittances home
- Everex and Shwe Bank will be using blockchain technology
- Shwe Bank addresses problems with money transfer transactions done through informal channels
Singapore-based fintech company Everex and Myanmar’s Shwe Urban & Rural Development Bank signed a partnership agreement recently, according to reports. The collaboration will introduce fast and secure cross-border blockchain remittances in Myanmar.
The new service will allow Burmese workers in Thailand to send money home securely through the fintech firm’s digital remittance platform. Based on a press release by Shwe Bank, international money transfers from the platform are expected to be more affordable than traditional money transfer transactions.
A 2013 report by the Economist notes that billions of dollars in remittances do not go through Myanmar’s formal banking system despite the millions of migrant workers who send money to the country. With a huge portion of the 55 million Burmese individuals who live and work abroad preferring informal channels to send money home, Myanmar only received $566m in remittances in 2012. This has become a decades-long burden for the country’s economy and it still persists today.
This reluctance to trust the banking system in the country is an expensive predicament, says United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Director Taffere Tesfachew. But it is not just the country’s income that is at risk, the money sent by migrant workers is at risk as well.
U Thein Zaw, Shwe Bank’s Executive Vice Chairman, said: “Myanmar people working in Thailand are foreign currency earners of our country, and their hard-earned money is at risk when they send it home via informal channels.”
Zaw added: “Shwe Bank and Everex have partnered to offer faster, less expensive and most importantly, safer money transfers using Everex’s digital remittance platform.”
Everex’s use of blockchain technology will help remove the risk of losing remittances in transit. Apart from this, the technology is also expected to offer financial inclusion among Myanmar’s unbanked.
For more information about international money transfers, take a look at this link here.
