HK Pinoy accelerate expansion after adopting RemitONE Money Transfer Platform

Background

HK Pinoy is an established and trusted pay-out aggregator, providing Money Transfer Operators with an extensive pay-out network to Africa. They aim to improve efficiencies in the market and provide their clients with cost-effective, fast and compliant cross-border remittances.

Operating since 2015, HK Pinoy quickly realised that building their own technology platform from scratch was time consuming, complex and expensive. In the early stages of their development, they decided to adopt a SaaS Money Transfer Platform from RemitONE, so they could rapidly go to market and focus on expanding their pay-out network for their clients.

Business Challenge

HK Pinoy required a money transfer system that was able to overcome several business challenges, including:

  • Simplify complex operational transactions
  • Ensure compliance measures are practised on behalf of their clients
  • Provide one single API for their clients
  • Create detailed reports

Solution

As an aggregator, HK Pinoy are making use of REST APIs provided by RemitONE in order to expand their partner network. This has allowed them to rapidly onboard partners resulting in an increase in transactions month on month. In the first quarter of 2021 alone, transactions have increased by 616% and it is projected to increase in the coming months.

RemitONE provided HK Pinoy with the following solutions

  • Money Transfer Engine (MTE), the industry-leading money transfer platform used by banks and MTOs worldwide.
  • Compliance Manager (COM), one of the world’s first business rules-driven compliance platforms, set by your regulatory authority the engine uses its sophisticated algorithm to enforce them.
  • Hosted SaaS platform.

Business Benefits

Since adopting the RemitONE Platform, HK Pinoy has realised the following benefits:

Operational efficiency – RemitONE were able to create a bespoke system for HK Pinoy aligned to all their business requirements. The RemitONE System can process high volumes of complex transactions quickly and easily, in a compliant manner.

Deliuz Jr. M. Fermin, CEO at HK Pinoy explains, “As we are not a standard remittance business, we are B2B, our model is not classic in the market, we had to choose RemitONE, for their operational know-how and award-winning technical features.”

Accelerated Expansion – As a client of RemitONE, HK Pinoy benefits from introductions to the vast RemitONE network, helping them to expand their client base. By adopting the RemitONE Platform, HK Pinoy was able to start speaking with and onboarding clients quickly because the technology infrastructure was built and ready to go.

Enhanced Compliance – With the RemitONE system, HK Pinoy can adhere to government regulations and security protocols allowing every transaction to be checked against AML and KYC standards.

Deliuz Jr. M. Fermin, CEO at HK Pinoy explains, “Our clients feel very comfortable knowing our technology platform is supplied by RemitONE, a well trusted and award-winning compliance brand in the market.”

Future Plans

The future looks bright for HK Pinoy, currently they have 30+ partners who are using the APIs on the RemitONE production system and they are looking to extend this further by opening new corridors across Africa, Latin America, Middle East and South-East Asia. In addition to adding new functionality such as mobile wallets.

If you are a Money Service Business interested in HK Pinoy’s offering or interested in RemitONE’s Money Transfer Software solution, please email marketing@remitone.com.

UnityLink Powers up with RemitONE’s Platform Enabling Remittance to Ghana

Background

UnityLink Financial Services Ltd is an international money transfer business, established in 1998, devoted to serve the European – African remittance corridors. With over 40% market share of the remittance market from the UK to Ghana, processing over one million transactions a year and over 3000 collection points in Ghana, UnityLink also provides services to remitters in the Netherlands, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Germany and the US through their impressive agent network.

To cope with their phenomenal growth and rapidly rising transaction volumes, in 2010 UnityLink needed a highly robust and scalable remittance platform with advanced compliance and security controls. They wanted to provide their agents with the ability to create and deliver transactions easily. They also wanted to make it easier for their customers to create transactions online from home, work and mobile devices. Lastly, they wanted stronger integration with other MTOs and banks and have the ability to offer value-add services to their customers.

Business Challenge

More specifically, UnityLink required:

  • A compliance rules management system that allowed for additional compliance procedures, over and above FCA and FinCen’s KYC and AML standards
  • A high performance, scalable platform customisable to individual requirements
  • Streamlined business processes
  • An enhanced user interface with appropriate security measures
  • Improved teller pay-out functionality
  • Full audit trails, improved accounting and reporting
  • Improved security, ID and address verification
  • Easy data migration from the old system to the new platform

Money Transfer Solution

RemitONE provided UnityLink with the following solutions:

Money Transfer Engine™ (MTE), the industry leading money transfer platform used by banks and MTOs worldwide with a built-in compliance rules engine

Agent Remittance Manager™ (ARM), an agent-based money transfer system, to allow UnityLink’s branch tellers to create transactions in a secure and compliant manner

Online Remittance Manager™ (ORM), the online self-service remittance platform, to let UnityLink’s customers create transactions online through laptops, tablets and smartphones

Webservice Interface that allows integration with clients and partners, both for sending and receiving transactions

UnityLink now has an end-to-end money transfer platform that offers the following features:

  • A compliant system with robust KYC procedures and AML checks against OFAC, EU Sanctions, PEPs and HM Treasury lists
  • A platform to implement rigorous compliance rules
  • Significantly improved accounting, audit trails and reporting
  • Better bank branch management and functionality
  • Utility bill payment and mobile top-up payments with Airtel integration
  • Improved login security
  • An online portal, both desktop and mobile versions
  • Better segregation of their US business, using custom functionality for that region
  • A reliable and stable integration with global partners such as WorldRemit, Small World, Money Express and others
  • Integrations to send to multiple mobile top-up service providers

Ms Maureen Williams, Operations Manager, UnityLink, commented “The RemitONE platform has allowed us to expand our business operations at an accelerated pace without compromising on KYC and AML compliance. RemitONE’s support team are always responsive, friendly, professional, and helpful.”

Business Benefits

Since adopting the RemitONE platform, UnityLink has realised the following benefits:

Performance and Scalability – scalable solution that has grown over the years as their business has grown with various developments

Third party integrations – has allowed rapid growth and transaction volumes to increase as partners are able to send transactions to Unity Link to pay-out through their system in Ghana.

Security and Compliance – using RemitONE’s industry-leading Compliance Manager™, UnityLink can be assured that their business is fully compliant with regulatory procedures and requirements. Moreover, UnityLink is provided with the flexibility of adding custom rules with RemitONE’s Compliance Rules Engine™

Significant Cost Reduction – With the latest remittance technologies, UnityLink has automated several labour-intensive tasks. They are now able to offer competitive rates and pass on the savings to their customers. This improves customer loyalty & retention.

Agent Empowerment – Agents using the RemitONE system have much more control over the creation, management and processing of transactions. This improves response times to special customer requests and other unforeseen transaction issues.

Customer Empowerment – With the RemitONE’s Online Remittance Manager™, UnityLink can empower the customer to send money online, quickly and securely from the comfort of their homes or mobile devices.

UBA unleashes its remittance potential with RemitONE’s platform & portals

Background

UBA is one of the most respected banks in Africa. They operate a domestic and cross-border remittance business, Africash, via hundreds of branches across their multi-national business covering 20 countries. Despite their strong reputation and the Africash brand, their remittance business was not performing so well.

The heart of the problem was that their legacy system did not support a 3rd party remittance channel, nor was it capable of supporting any other new initiatives. The cost, effort and time involved in issuing system changes meant that it was both a significant overhead and a hindrance which dragged down business performance.

Business Challenge

More specifically, UBA required more extensive remittance functionality:

  • Support for multi-national branch network/integration with core banking systems
  • Integration with value-add partners (e.g. Mobile network operators)
  • Support for 3rd party agents
  • Compliance/fraud prevention
  • Strong system security as part of a bank branch network
  • A better way of managing system maintenance & updates
  • An online & mobile customer experience

Money Transfer Solution

RemitONE provided UBA with the following solutions:

  • Money Transfer Engine™ (MTE), the industry leading money transfer platform used by banks and MTOs worldwide
  • Agent Remittance Manager™ (ARM), an agent based money transfer system, to allow UBA’s own agents and 3rd party agents to create transactions in a secure and compliant manner
  • RemitONE Connections – a service which creates a relationship between senders and payers in the RemitONE network
  • The opportunity to implement RemitONE’s Online Remittance Manager™ (ORM), the online self-service remittance platform, to let UBA’s customers create transactions online through laptops, tablets and smartphones

However, just as important as the platform solution to the overall success was the implementation project itself which included:

  • Integration of the RemitONE solution with UBA’s core banking system (Finacle)
  • Custom development to support enhanced security features and UBA’s 3rd party agent management processes
  • Skilling the UBA team to offer 1st line support to their community.
  • Linux-ProgreSQL-PHP stack training to UBA’s technical team in order to overcome an initial reluctance to adopt a different technology platform.

UBA now has an end-to-end money transfer platform that offers the following features:

  • A compliant system with robust KYC procedures and AML checks
  • A robust web-based technology platform that can scale & be rapidly deployed across hundreds of branches in 18 countries
  • Integration with their core banking platform
  • Ability to handle the 3rd party agent network & expansion of other agent networks
  • Security in-line with their internal policies
  • Reduced cost of ownership of the remittance platform
  • Access to a wider sending network through RemitONE Connections
  • Significantly increased ROI & enhanced customer experience

Business Benefits

Since adopting the RemitONE platform, UBA has realised the following benefits:

Unleashed Potential – Replacing their legacy system with RemitONE’s modern industry-leading platform has unshackled the business from that which was constraining it. They have retained the security and integration expected in a core financial platform.

Significant Cost Reduction – With the latest remittance technologies, UBA is able to realise a better cost of ownership profile for its remittance platform, at the same time offering much more functionality to its users and customers.

RemitONE Helps Leading Central African MTO Accept Transactions in a Rapid and Secure Manner

Background

Express Union Finance are the largest money transfer financial institution in Cameroon with over 250 branches across the country. Express Union also carry out banking operations in 175 branches.

Express Union has correspondent banking relationships across Africa and Europe. They deal extensively with Bank d’Escompte (BdE), a leading French private bank founded in 1936.

BdE caters to the large Cameroonian and other Central African communities in France and acts as a source agent for several MTOs including Express Union.

Business Challenge

Express Union collects migrant remittances from BdE and distributes them across Cameroon through its vast branch network. BdE has its own unique remittance system in place for creating transactions. A smooth and secure mechanism was required by Express Union and BdE for exchanging transaction information several times on a daily basis.

Express Union also wanted a web-based, feature-rich and KYC & AML compliant money transfer management system. They approached RemitONE Consulting Services to find the optimum solution.

Solution

RemitONE Consulting Services proposed an innovative solution comprising of the RemitONE Money Transfer Management Solution (R1 MTMS) and a rapid and simple mechanism for information exchange via FTP server.

The R1 MTMS, a highly advanced and web-based money transfer platform can be used by Express Union to run their remittance operations in a centralised manner. BdE tellers can generate transactions in their own remittance system which can then dump all relevant files with the business critical transaction information onto an FTP server. Express Union’s R1 MTMS can then retrieve these files from the FTP server and update its records. The retrieval process is done every 5 minutes in order to ensure that the data in the R1 MTMS is up-to-date. The updated transaction records are instantly available for the assigned Express Union staff across their branch network for payout and account reconciliation purposes.

Business Benefits

Cost Savings – BdE can continue to create POS transactions in its own remittance system. This implies that it does not have to worry about training its tellers on new software, thereby ensuring cost savings in terms of resource allocation and time. Express Union save costs because they do not need a common remittance system with BdE but can make use of the R1 MTMS’s powerful features to grow their business exponentially.

New Market Penetration and Higher ROI – The idea of partnering with Express Union without having to switch to their remittance system for transaction creation is appealing to many banks and MTOs seeking to tap into the highly profitable Central African remittance markets. For Express Union, more source agents mean higher revenues. Express Union can apply the information exchange via FTP server approach with other banks as well.

Improved Business Process Management – With the R1 MTMS, Express Union can now ensure that all business critical transaction information is managed in a highly centralised manner and is instantly available to the right staff member at the right branch.

Future Plans

With the R1 MTMS, Express Union aim to expand quickly and have already engaged RemitONE to design and develop a similar transaction information exchange mechanism between BdE and Express Union branches in Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon.