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.

Leading International MTO Real Transfers Moves to the RemitONE Platform

Background

Real Transfers, a highly respected MTO sending from Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland and the UK and specialising in Latin American markets, particularly Brazil, has signed up with RemitONE to use the industry leading RemitONE Money Transfer Solution (MTS) for its international money transfer operation. Real Transfer joined RemitONE in 2013 and have had rapid growth since then. Having partnered with several important players in the remittance industry, Real Transfers wanted a robust, secure and feature-rich money transfer platform that could flexibly integrate with third-party systems of banks, ID service providers, rate feed providers and others whilst coping with impressive growth.

Real Transfers plans to make use of RemitONE’s Ecosystem to tap into new markets with RemitONE introducing Real Transfers to several banks and MTOs which are already on the RemitONE platform.

Mr Juliano DeMoreas, MD, Real Transfers, commented, “I am very happy with the RemitONE system and even more with your customer service. I can tell that you really value your customers. We look forward to working with RemitONE to provide convenient remittance services at competitive rates to our customers.”

Mr Anwar Saleem, CEO, RemitONE said, “We are very pleased to be working with Real Transfers. Their staff are extremely friendly and professional and we value our special relationship with them. I envision great cooperation between RemitONE and Real Transfers as we both focus on technology and strive to deliver an enhanced customer experience. We look forward to a long-term relationship.”

Business challenge

  • Streamline business processes – Real Transfer initially started with the Sale model in order to have greater control and access to their data as this was the requirement from the regulatory body. The information needed to be hosted locally.
  • IT infrastructure management – They soon migrated over to the SaaS model as they wanted RemitONE to manage their IT infrastructure and software while they can focus on remittances. This eliminated the complexity of building, maintaining and hosting a solution.
  • Compliance/ Fraud prevention – Real Transfer required a system that adheres to KYC, AML and regulatory reporting standards with the ability to track and monitor every transaction. Security is crucial for you to protect your customers’ money and personal data. Effective compliance is crucial for you being regarded as a trusted player in your chosen markets. RemitONE provided Real Transfer with both these elements and more.

Money Transfer Platform

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 Real Transfer’s branch tellers to create transactions in a secure and compliant manner.

Online Remittance Manager™ (ORM), an online remittance platform used to create transactions through a website portal that will be white labelled to reflect your brand identity.

Mobile Remittance Manager™ (MRM), a downloadable app that can be used by customers to register and send money on their mobile device.

Hosted (SaaS) platform

Business Benefits

Enhanced Compliance – With the RemitONE system, Real Transfer is able to adhere to government regulations and security protocols allowing every transaction to be checked against AML and KYC standards.

Integrations – the platform has been integrated with a number of correspondent entities however Real Transfer wanted the following integrations: Banco Paulista, More Money and Banco Rendimento in order to strengthen its business network.

Improved Business Process Management – the RemitONE platform gave Real Transfer the ability to manage agents, auto route transactions and create business rules in an efficient manner based on their requirements.

Growth & Scalability – the ability to grow and scale was an important factor for Real Transfer. The RemitONE platform is architected to support very high volumes of transactions, customers and agents. We have created a single platform that is so well designed that it takes you through the growth barriers without the need to switch.

Leading MTO Tempo adopts RemitONE system to expand business operations

Background

Tempo has been in the Money Transfer Industry for the last 30 years, serving people across the world, with offices in France and Germany.

Tempo’s key objective was to make money transfer convenient and borderless to meet the different needs and habits of diverse people as well as create options for millions previously left without access. With bank transfer and pick up locations in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America, Tempo’s services are built on reliability, comprehensive support and personal assistance.

As Tempo’s operations grew, they wanted to adopt a system that was capable of allowing them to accelerate growth, process transactions securely and be compliant in all areas of the business.

Business challenge

Tempo wanted to focus on three key areas which were: business growth, security and compliance. To help them achieve this, they required a money transfer engine that was scalable, robust and compliant whilst adhering to Bank of France’s requirements.

Money Transfer Solution

RemitONE provided Tempo 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 Tempo’s own agents and 3rd party agents to create transactions in a secure and compliant manner
  • RemitONE’s Online Remittance Manager™ (ORM) and Mobile Remittance Manager (MRM), the digital self-service remittance platforms, allowing Tempo’s customers to create transactions through laptops, tablets and smartphones

In addition to the above platforms, RemitONE implemented the following key features for Tempo to enhance their accounting and compliance processes:

Super Bank Functionality – permits Super Bank users to be linked to multiple banks, allowing the Super Bank user to:

  • View credit logs of banks the user is linked to
  • Have its own credit log with all entries of its linked banks converted into a single currency
  • Have a credit balance in a single currency
  • View Transactions (Live and Past transactions)
  • View Processing banks
  • Access to web service method ‘Get Payout Transactions’

Points-based additional compliance checks – A sophisticated new screen allowing for points-based checks is available to the admin users. There are 7 categories that can be given points, which when they add up to a maximum amount, will force the transaction to be held for compliance.

The categories are:

  • Number of beneficiaries this remitter has sent to
  • Number of countries this remitter has sent to
  • Amount sent (above declared monthly income)
  • Country of destination (doesn’t correspond to the country of birth)
  • Number of operations per month
  • Age of customer (between 18 and 20)
  • Destination country with list of sensitive countries (add points if country on list)

Weighted compliance rules – Configurable weighted compliance rules to trigger when total weighted rules exceed 100%. Some compliance rules trigger false positives, which results in extensive manual checks (this can be around 15% of all transactions). If weighted compliance rules are deployed, the number of false positives can be reduced significantly.

PEP and Sanction lists – Some of the lists to name are: OFAC, HM Treasury, EU Sanctions, UN Sanctions, Australian DFAT, Dutch Sanctions, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Every Politician, CIA World Leaders, EU Members of Parliament, CoE Parliamentary Assembly, GB Insolvency Disqualified Directors, INTERPOL Red Notices, UN Consolidated Sanctions, SDFM Blacklist, Swiss SECO Sanctions/Embargoes, OFAC Consolidated List, US Denied Persons List, GB Consolidated List of Targets, EEAS Consolidated List, Kyrgyz FIU National List and World Presidents DB

ID Verification – Automated KYC via online ID checks, including passport and address verification against remitters when they register or attempt to send money over a certain amount.

Bureau De Change – A service that allows consumers to exchange one currency for another

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

  • A compliant money transfer system which is in line with regulatory bodies
  • Ability to handle 3rd party agent networks & expansion of other agent networks
  • Ability to handle online and agent transactions using one system

Business benefits

Simplified inhouse development– By making use of RemitONE’s API, Tempo can do their own developments, such as money transfer rates board, without having to rely on other parties.

Enhanced access to global networks – With our API, Tempo can now easily integrate with partners, clients and remittance hubs around the world.

Improved Fraud mitigation – By having greater control over transaction creation, management and processing, Tempo is able to enforce KYC and AML procedures with ease and mitigate fraud.

Increased RoI – Increased automation and efficiency have allowed Tempo to increase their transaction volumes through multiple channels, thereby increasing their Return on Investment.

Noble Runs their Successful Remittance Operation on the RemitONE Platform

Background

Established in 2002, Noble are an Authorised Payment Institution (API) that currently provide money remittance services to the ethnic migrant communities living in the United Kingdom. Presently, a significant part of Noble’s business comprises remittances from the UK to Pakistan. Noble also send remittances to Sri Lanka and Africa via international third-party service providers such as Small World.

As Noble’s business grew, they realised that they needed a robust, scalable and web-based system that gave them the ability to adhere to compliance rules. As a result, they began the search for a new vendor which had a solution to meet these requirements and more.

Business Challenge

Noble collected remittances at their UK branches and then sent them to Pakistan for pay-outs. They needed a web-based, feature-rich and KYC & AML compliant money transfer management system that could create high volumes of transactions in a secure and rapid manner whilst ensuring all compliance checks are enforced at all times.

Money Transfer Solution

RemitONE proposed a solution which consisted of having a core money transfer engine with other modules including Compliance Manager to perform KYC and AML checks against international PEPs and Sanctions lists, Online Remittance Manager (ORM) to allow customers to send money online and Agent Remittance Manager (ARM) to continue the in-branch services.

Business Benefits

Since adopting the RemitONE platform, Noble has realised the following business benefits:

Transaction monitoring is much more efficient as the RemitONE system stores all details of transactions and gives Noble the ability to generate specific reports e.g. pending transactions report, compliance report and more.

Adhering to compliance rules is much easier as Noble are able to create compliance rules based on particular criteria and remitters and beneficiaries are checked against KYC rules. This means that the risk of fraudulent transactions has been significantly mitigated.

Reaching out to customers through digital channels has become much easier for Noble.

RemTech Judging Panel

RemitONE’s solution shows that they understand the problem that needs to be addressed and have built a solution to it, rather than many others which have a solution but are not addressing a real-world problem. It is particularly noteworthy because their solution helps not just MTOs but regulators as well and could make a major difference to the problem of de-risking.

Peter Molders, Caleen Financial Services

RemitONE’s money transfer platform copes very well with our transaction volume and has the necessary functionality to meet our business, regulatory and customer needs. We are pleased with the system’s performance and the level of support we receive from the RemitONE team.

Ernest Edwards – JMMB Group

As an established leader in remittance in the Caribbean, JMMB went through a rigorous evaluation to modernise our remittance platform. After a successful pilot confirmed the selection of RemitONE, a detailed migration of the existing services and data was completed. The strong functionality of the RemitONE platform allowed JMMB to implement with minimal customisation and the regular updates to the platform continue to add value to our business.

Kabayan selects RemitONE to build their UK to Philippines remittance business

Background

Headquartered in the UK, Kabayan Remit is one of the leading brands in the money transfer industry focusing on the UK to the Philippines corridor. Their parent company – Kabayan Capital – was already trading successfully in the loans sector for the Filipino diaspora in the UK. Getting into the money transfer space to cater to their impressive and loyal customer base was a natural evolution, so they launched Kabayan Remit and for that they needed a proven money transfer platform.

Kabayan Remit has as their payout partners some of the biggest brands in the Philippines, including Globe and E-Money Plus.

Their excellent social media presence continues to target their customers with loyalty programs to ensure they return for additional added-value services.

Business Challenge

More specifically, Kabayan required:

  • A sophisticated online solution to match their tech savvy customers
  • Support with licensing arrangements and a 3 stage go to market strategy
  • Ability to generate promotions, discounts & loyalty programs
  • Integration with mobile network operators (Globe)and remittance network giant E-Money Plus in the Philippines
  • Robust online card payments from customers
  • Rapid deployment to get to market quickly but would allow for scale
  • Online capture and automated verification of customer details in line with AMC and KYC regulations

Money Transfer Solution

RemitONE provided Kabayan with the following solutions:

  1. Money Transfer Engine™ (MTE), the industry leading money transfer platform used by banks and MTOs worldwide
  2. Online Remittance Manager™ (ORM), the online self-service remittance platform, to let Kabayan’s customers create transactions online through laptops, tablets and smartphones
  3. Hosted (SaaS) platform

The RemitONE solution provided the following features for Kabayan Remit:

  • MTE integration with ID Verification service provider Experian to ensure EDD and KYC checks are performed automatically
  • The platform allows Kabayan Remit to set a range of promotions & discount rules for customer loyalty initiativesg. 10% discount to any remitter who sends £100 in the Christmas period
  • Robust and easy to use online platform for Kabayan Remit’s customers
  • Multiple payment methods for remitters are available in the system e.g. bank account transfer, SOFORT Banking and integration with a payment processor to facilitate debit and credit card payments online
  • Integration with mobile network operator Globe and remittance network E-Money Plus for payout

Business Benefits

Growth & Scalability – The RemitONE platform has played a key role in helping Kabayan Remit witness over 500% growth in their transaction volumes within a year. The platform has scaled rapidly with KABAYAN REMIT’s ever increasing transaction volumes.

Building upon the success of their UK operations, Kabayan are now aggressively looking to expand into Europe, Scandinavia and North America.

Integration – The platform has integrated with a number of correspondent entities in the Philippines, allowing Kabayan Remit to strengthen and rapidly grow its business network.

Customer loyalty – The RemitONE platform has allowed Kabayan to benefit from the existing customer base of Kabayan Capital and has added value to the overall customer relationship and promotional offerings.

JMMB Money Transfer flourishes with RemitONE’s technology platform

Background

JMMB Money Transfer is one of the biggest MTOs in Jamaica with several correspondent relationships with entities in sending markets worldwide. JMMB Money Transfer is a key aggregator of transactions – working with international MTOs such as Ria, Sigue and Small World, aggregating transactions and distributing them via JMMB’s wide payout network of over 90 outlets on the island.

As JMMB Money Transfer’s business grew to significantly high transaction volumes, they realised they needed a sophisticated and robust money transfer platform to scale with their growth. They also knew that their specific requirements would mean a more complex project than usual and as a result they embarked on a rigorous vendor selection process.

Business Challenge

More specifically, JMMB Money Transfer required:

  • A platform to bring new offerings to market quickly in the intensely competitive Jamaican market
  • A platform to connect to their send MTO community to retain their competitive edge as an aggregator
  • Strong support for their agent model
  • A system that had leading remittance functionality already in place
  • Comprehensive training & implementation plan
  • An experienced partner to minimise disruption for existing customers

Money Transfer Solution

RemitONE provided JMMB Money Transfer 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, allows JMMB Money Transfer’s agent network to create and payout transactions in a secure and compliant manner
  • RemitONE Connections – a service which makes a relationship between senders and payers in the RemitONE network

The RemitONE solution provided the following features for JMMB Money Transfer: 

  • Robust and easy-to-use web-based platform for JMMB Money Transfer’s agents that could be rapidly deployed across hundreds of branches for payout
  • Ready-made remittance platform with minimal customisations
  • A Webservices API, so JMMB Money Transfer can accept transactions from its sending MTO partners
  • A smooth and well-defined training and customer onboarding process
  • Connect with other RemitONE clients rapidly through the RemitONE Connections service and tap into new markets from which to accept inbound transactions
  • Enable JMMB Money Transfer to use the platform not only to accept transactions from correspondent partners for delivery but also to rapidly deploy a complete agent-based send system for their domestic send-agents

Commenting on the RemitONE platform, Ernest Edwards, Manager – Group IT Projects,  JMMB Group: “As an established leader in remittance in the Caribbean, JMMB Money Transfer went through a rigorous evaluation to modernise our remittance platform. After a successful pilot confirmed the selection of RemitONE, a detailed migration of the existing services and data was completed. The strong functionality of the RemitONE platform allowed JMMB Money Transfer to implement with minimal customisation and the regular updates to the platform continue to add value to our business”.

Business Benefits

Growth & scalability – since adopting the RemitONE platform in 2014 (and going live in 2015), JMMB Money Transfer has experienced a 619% increase in remittance volumes. It allows them to handle their large agent network and quickly implement change.

Focus & cost of ownership – having a secure, dependable, hosted platform has allowed JMMB Money Transfer to focus its resources on the money transfer business rather than divert expensive resources to manage its legacy systems and struggle to take on new initiatives and partners.

Compliance – secure adherence to KYC, AML regulation in a complex send/receive network.

Continued value – from RemitONE’s experience of bringing new capabilities to market that can be rapidly deployed across the business.

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.