by JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO
Manila–Padala or the money brought home by vacationing overseas Filipinos here, is on its seven-year low, based on data from the Philippines’s Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Migration and remittances experts call these cash —$506 million in 2007— as "informal remittances." This includes money that did not pass through "formal" banking channels.
Usually, informal remittances are sent through door-to-door companies, in particular those without partner banks, and courier services. Increasingly, some Filipino-run money transfer organizations with door-to-door services have partnered with commercial banks.
That 2007 figure is the lowest since the BSP, following the fifth edition of the Balance of Payments (BOP) manual of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), started computing the amount of informal remittances in 2001 when the total volume was $1.69 billion.
But the diminished volume of informal remittances have been evident since 2004. From $1.71 billion that year, informal remittances went down to $1.603 billion in 2005, and $1.276 billion in 2006.
The BSP’s multiple-year data showed that the 2007 total of formal and informal cash remittances from overseas Filipinos was $14.956 billion, broken down into $14.45 billion of formal remittances and the $506 million of informal remittances.
That combined total is a seven-year high as well, as informal remittances make up 3.38 percent of the 2007 total.
That 2007 percentage of informal remittances to the total cash remittances is also the lowest. In 2001, when the combined formal and informal cash remittances reached $7.721 billion, the $1.690 billion of informal remittances made up 21.83 percent.
From 2002 to 2007, the percentage share of informal remittances to the combined total remittances dropped further.
The seven-year total informal remittances of $10.02 billion made up 13.01 percent of that same period’s total formal and informal remittances worth $76.967 billion.
In 2005, when the BSP started adopting the BOP 5 Manual of the IMF, informal remittances showed it "mitigated the downward effect of adjustment in goods imports".
Using that same BOP 5 manual, BSP data showed that total imports also had a seven-year high with $57.527 billion from $43.827 billion in 2000.
According to Director Iluminada Sicat, the BSP estimates the volume of informal remittances every time the National Statistics Office comes up with the results of the annual Survey on Overseas Filipinos so that it may determine "an under-coverage ratio" to determine the volume of these informal flows.
Indications
MELINDA dela Cruz, a migrant worker in Paris, France, reported that the "newer remittance channels run by Filipino banks and financial institutions in the last five years has made remitting easier." Melinda has been in Paris for 28 years. She is now working in a shopping mall.
Undocumented Filipinos in Paris usually send money through informal channels because of their irregular status. France is home to some 39,000 undocumented or irregular Filipinos, the largest in Europe according to the 2007 Philippine government data.
But the country has no restrictions for undocumented migrants wishing to send money home, said Filipina Lea Munnecom who is handling the outlet of Bank of the Philippine Islands and correspondent French bank, Banque d’Escompte that serves some 1,000 Filipino clients monthly.
Since Filipinos in host countries like France have started queuing to new remittance companies that have partner banks in the Philippines and in the host country, Filipinos in France, said another set of data from the BSP, reported an eight-year-high of $54.48 million remitted in 2007 from $15.42 million in 2000.
Banco de Oro, BPI, Philippine National Bank, Allied Bank, and Metrobank are the Philippine banks that serve Filipinos in Paris.
According to Philippine ambassador in Paris Jose Abeto Zaide remittance charges are among the reasons why Filipinos send money through informal channels.
Remittance charges of banks in 2006 were €15 "and the three-Euro reduction this year was news," Zaide said.
Melinda revealed, she only sends through padala whenever she and her daughter Abby go to the Philippines every July while avoiding the summer heat of Europe.
But when Melinda returned to her home located in a district just outside of Paris, "I have no choice but go to the bank."
That makes her siblings in Paris and executives of Philippine banks branches in Paris, happy every month. /MP
Migration and remittances experts call these cash —$506 million in 2007— as "informal remittances." This includes money that did not pass through "formal" banking channels.
Usually, informal remittances are sent through door-to-door companies, in particular those without partner banks, and courier services. Increasingly, some Filipino-run money transfer organizations with door-to-door services have partnered with commercial banks.
That 2007 figure is the lowest since the BSP, following the fifth edition of the Balance of Payments (BOP) manual of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), started computing the amount of informal remittances in 2001 when the total volume was $1.69 billion.
But the diminished volume of informal remittances have been evident since 2004. From $1.71 billion that year, informal remittances went down to $1.603 billion in 2005, and $1.276 billion in 2006.
The BSP’s multiple-year data showed that the 2007 total of formal and informal cash remittances from overseas Filipinos was $14.956 billion, broken down into $14.45 billion of formal remittances and the $506 million of informal remittances.
That combined total is a seven-year high as well, as informal remittances make up 3.38 percent of the 2007 total.
That 2007 percentage of informal remittances to the total cash remittances is also the lowest. In 2001, when the combined formal and informal cash remittances reached $7.721 billion, the $1.690 billion of informal remittances made up 21.83 percent.
From 2002 to 2007, the percentage share of informal remittances to the combined total remittances dropped further.
The seven-year total informal remittances of $10.02 billion made up 13.01 percent of that same period’s total formal and informal remittances worth $76.967 billion.
In 2005, when the BSP started adopting the BOP 5 Manual of the IMF, informal remittances showed it "mitigated the downward effect of adjustment in goods imports".
Using that same BOP 5 manual, BSP data showed that total imports also had a seven-year high with $57.527 billion from $43.827 billion in 2000.
According to Director Iluminada Sicat, the BSP estimates the volume of informal remittances every time the National Statistics Office comes up with the results of the annual Survey on Overseas Filipinos so that it may determine "an under-coverage ratio" to determine the volume of these informal flows.
Indications
MELINDA dela Cruz, a migrant worker in Paris, France, reported that the "newer remittance channels run by Filipino banks and financial institutions in the last five years has made remitting easier." Melinda has been in Paris for 28 years. She is now working in a shopping mall.
Undocumented Filipinos in Paris usually send money through informal channels because of their irregular status. France is home to some 39,000 undocumented or irregular Filipinos, the largest in Europe according to the 2007 Philippine government data.
But the country has no restrictions for undocumented migrants wishing to send money home, said Filipina Lea Munnecom who is handling the outlet of Bank of the Philippine Islands and correspondent French bank, Banque d’Escompte that serves some 1,000 Filipino clients monthly.
Since Filipinos in host countries like France have started queuing to new remittance companies that have partner banks in the Philippines and in the host country, Filipinos in France, said another set of data from the BSP, reported an eight-year-high of $54.48 million remitted in 2007 from $15.42 million in 2000.
Banco de Oro, BPI, Philippine National Bank, Allied Bank, and Metrobank are the Philippine banks that serve Filipinos in Paris.
According to Philippine ambassador in Paris Jose Abeto Zaide remittance charges are among the reasons why Filipinos send money through informal channels.
Remittance charges of banks in 2006 were €15 "and the three-Euro reduction this year was news," Zaide said.
Melinda revealed, she only sends through padala whenever she and her daughter Abby go to the Philippines every July while avoiding the summer heat of Europe.
But when Melinda returned to her home located in a district just outside of Paris, "I have no choice but go to the bank."
That makes her siblings in Paris and executives of Philippine banks branches in Paris, happy every month. /MP
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