Open finance platform UBX enables more than half a million overseas Filipinos in Singapore to make digital cross-border remittances through its most expansive network of access points at more affordable rates.
Through a partnership with ThitsaWorks, a fintech backed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, UBX will provide the necessary digital infrastructure for international remittances between Singapore and the Philippines via its banking-as-a-service venture i2i.
"This is a big step forward to enable fast, convenient, and ubiquitous cross-border remittances for the benefit of the Filipino migrant workers in Singapore. I am confident that this partnership will also accelerate financial inclusion in the Philippines by giving clients across all regions of the archipelago — regardless of how rural or remote — access to secure and connected payments through any financial service provider, including rural banks, cooperatives, and other community based financial institutions," UBX president and CEO John Januszczak said.
While many remittance options exist for overseas migrant workers in Singapore, options to reach rural areas where many workers' families live are complicated, expensive, and slow.
Additionally, friends and family who only have accounts with microfinance institutions and rural banks cannot receive direct payments.
With its strategic partnership with ThitsaWorks, i2i aims to connect small financial institutions to real-time payment networks to enable fast, convenient, and ubiquitous cross-border remittances.
This means that overseas Filipinos in Singapore may use the service to send money to any monetary account in the Philippines, regardless of bank, financial institution, or even cash agents under the i2i network.
UBX has the most comprehensive network of access points in the Philippines and has partnered with banks, non-banks, financial institutions, e-wallets, and cash agents to reach the underbanked and the unbanked.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore recently awarded ThitsaWorks the Financial Sector Technology and Innovation Proof of Concept grant for the Inclusive Cross-Border Remittances Project.
"We are happy to be a part of the Inclusive Cross-Border Remittance Project which will make remittance cheaper and faster for the Singapore -to-Philippines corridor. I believe this project will positively affect the remittance challenges that many overseas migrant workers in Singapore undergo, which we witness daily. Our ThitsaWorks team is also very excited to work closely with prominent financial industry participants and learn from each other," Nyi Nyein Aye, CEO and Co-founder of ThitsaWorks said.
