Fintech's World

The fintech industry welcomed multi-billion dollar investments in 2019. Where is the most growth, and how are incumbents dealing with digital disruption?

Since the introduction of the first credit card with a magnetic stripe in 1966, financial technology has come a long way. Silicon Valley may not have birthed the term “fintech”, but it has certainly helped catapult its applications into the mainstream.

Leveraging everything from basic apps to the blockchain, the changing dynamics of fintech are creating new investment opportunities every day, growing its appetite with every new megadeal.

Check out the graphic which highlights the global growth of the fintech industry, the services with the most staying power, and major M&A developments of the past year as traditional institutions scramble to deal with this digital disruption.

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Microsoft establishes a new company called called Microsoft Payments

From TWCN Tech News -
“Microsoft Corporation, according to applications filed before regulatory bodies, may be working on a potential online payment system, exclusive to its platform. The suggestion that the Redmond-giant may have a new service for mobile-payment up its sleeve was accidently revealed following the issue of license by the State of Idaho, Department of Finance. The name of the company, to which the license was issued, is called Microsoft Payments Inc. The license permits the company to operate as a money transfer platform.”

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What we are reading … 4th March 2013

Consumers remain resistant to digital banking aspirations http://dld.bz/cm5Sy

Banking Fraud: Trends and Technologies http://dld.bz/cm5Ss

Majority of Americans Desire Portable Bank Account Numbers: Study http://dld.bz/cm5Sq

Fed Publishes Interactive Bank Failure Map http://bankinnovation.net/2013/02/fed-publishes-bank-failure-map/

New Startup Passport Aims to Take the Pain out of International Money Transfers http://dld.bz/cmc5y

MasterCard's Mobile World Symposium: mPayments Around The Globe http://shar.es/j6CR8

Samsung unveils 'Wallet', an Android alternative to Apple's Passbook http://shar.es/j6CbO
More convenience, less privacy http://reut.rs/Y0uVdQ

BlackBerry trials mobile money transfer service over Messenger

“BlackBerry is testing a new mobile money transfer application integrated into its signature Messenger chat service, a move the beleaguered device maker hopes will keep customers from defecting to rival over-the-top messaging services like fast-growing WhatsApp, Bloomberg reports.”

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Remittances become Kenya’s top forex earner

The inflow of funds from Kenyans abroad grew significantly in the past 12 months to become the country’s top earner of foreign exchange helped by a renewal of interest in the real estate sector, increasing popularity of university education and growing importance of entrepreneurship as a key source of employment in the country.

A new study by the World Bank and the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) indicates that Kenya received a total of Sh152 billion or $1.9 billion in the past 12 months – beating proceeds from traditional forex earners such as tourism (Sh100 billion), tea (Sh70 billion and horticulture’s Sh71 billion.

This volume of inflow translates to an average of Sh58,800 for each of the 2.61 million Kenyans who received money from abroad during the period and the number of recipients is equivalent to 14 per cent of the country’s adult population.

The study is the first of its kind between the two institutions and the first also to include transfers that are not received through the formal financial system, suggests that the inflow of remittances is three times more than previously thought.

The Central Bank estimate of annual remittances excluding informal channels was $609 million (Sh49 billion) last year, a marginal drop from $611 million in 2008.

This year’s receipts were expected to surpass last year’s owing to the economic recovery of the US economy and stabilization of the weak European economy -- the major source of the remittance - which has suffered massive job losses in 2009 following the global economic meltdown that started the third quarter of 2008.

Kenya, like many African countries that receive high volumes of remittances, has been found to be lacking in policies that could help channel the inflows to sectors that strengthen their role in enhancing economic growth – leaving much of it to go into consumption.

The joint survey established that half of the total amount received goes to meeting recipients’ daily expenses such as food, housing and medicare, with the other half going to key economic and social functions including start-up capital for small businesses (35 per cent), paying for university education (33 per cent) and buying or building houses (8 per cent).

Only a tiny four per cent of the remittance receipts are kept as savings.

Unlike the trend in other parts of the world, the World Bank study found that it is Kenya’s emerging middle-class is the main recipient of the remittances.

“This is unique because these are not people looking for money to make ends meet. In other parts of the world it is the needy, who get such remittances,” said Sergio Bendixen, an advisor with the World Bank.

Utilization of the remittances in growth projects such as housing and business start-ups is being taken as signaling the potential that exists to deploy the funds in enhancement of economic growth.

Mr Michael Fuchs, an advisor to the World Bank’s Africa region on finance and private sector development, said that in many African countries, remittances have moved beyond ordinary support to the subsistence needs of recipients to driving actual GDP growth.

“Governments must develop legal and regulatory frameworks that will help providers of remittances move beyond simple hand-outs. They need to design and deploy innovative and functional financial products and services that facilitate savings, loans, mortgages and insurance,” he said.

While a large fraction of the flows are made up of private transfers to family members and friends, the World Bank says policy makers and service providers could play an active and supportive role in leveraging its development impact by facilitating formal flows and reducing the cost of transactions, the World Bank said.

Kenya’s Finance and Foreign Affairs ministries have responded to the emerging trends with a raft of new regulations on remittances that offer preferential treatment to flows earmarked for investment.

The critical role that remittances have come to play in the Kenyan economy is further indicated in the attention it has received from the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), a key public policy organ.

Mr Bendixen said a revolution in information and communication technology (ICT) has helped drive the flow of remittances into Kenya citing cheaper call and internet charges that have offer easy linkages between remitters and recipients.

The US, England, the United Arab Emirates, Uganda and Tanzania are Kenya’s main sources of remittances with commercial banks, money transfer firms and mobile phone platforms such M-PEAS and Zap as the main channels used to transfer the funds.

The US and England’s leadership of the list of remittances source markets has however caused concern that ongoing economic turbulence in Europe and North America could culminate to a fresh dip in the volume of remittances in the medium term.

The World Bank has however allayed the fears terming the “situation would temporary” citing the recent resurgence in economies such as China, Germany, and India as well as demand for work force in the most developed countries where births have remained low.

“People will continue to move North and money will continue to move South,” said Mr Bendixen.

Remittances to sub-Saharan Africa are currently estimated to exceed $21 billion and are expected to grow by almost two per cent this year despite a weak global economy.

To increase formal flows and deepen their financial markets, the World Bank is asking African government to encourage competition and technological innovation that will help reduce costs and increase access to financial services among local recipients.

Benjamin Musuku, an official with the World Bank’s Finance and Private Sector department, said lack of connectivity to financial systems has hampered the growth of remittances in Africa and urged for improved access to such facilities.

The survey however recorded relative advancement in Kenya where more than four-fifths of recipients received their money through a bank or money transfer firm.

“Despite significant progress in the reporting of remittances throughout the world, most official statistics in sub-Saharan Africa still under estimate the true size of the flows. This is in part due to a focus of data collection efforts on formal channels such as banks,” the bank said.

Australia not yet ready for mobile banking

While KPMG’s recently released global survey, “Consumers and Convergence IV” finds a dramatic rise globally in the usage of mobile applications over the past two years, but that financial transactions use lags other uses. The survey covered 5,627 consumers in 22 countries.

The Asia Pacific region leads the world - although there were increases globally from 2008 to 2010 for banking and financial transactions over mobile phones, Asia Pacific which has one of the highest densities of mobile devices, had the most significant growth in the adoption of mobile banking transactions.

An astounding 43% of Asia Pacific respondents make mobile banking transactions at least once a month, compared to 30% globally. But in Australia only 19% of mobile phone owners use their phone for banking monthly, partly due to the lack of awareness of mobile banking offerings. Surprisingly 40% of Australian respondents did not even know whether their bank offered mobile banking compared. This is much higher than the 10% in Asia Pacific and 24% globally.

In Australia, only 8% have conducted investment transactions over their mobile phones within the last 6 months, and only 5% in the last seven to 12 months. And interestingly, 87% had never made an investment transaction, such as selling a stock or bond, over their mobile. This is much higher than the 53% for Asia Pacific region and 71% globally.

Australia also lagged Asia Pacific region and global respondents when it came to the level of comfort in using their mobile phone for financial transactions. 21% of Australians are comfortable with mobile banking compared to 40% in the Asia Pacific region and 34% globally. Furthermore, 70% of Australians have never done any banking on a mobile device compared with 55% globally and 38% in the Asia Pacific region.

But as awareness and prevalence of mobile devices and comfort with their usage increases, this gap is expected to reduce quite sharply in the future, as the business advantages to both parties are quite substantial.

Peter Russell, KPMG Financial Services Partner sounded quite optimistic about the ability of Australian banks and consumers to catch up, saying “Australian banks have tended to let consumers find their mobile banking solutions and have focused on this channel as primarily a way to facilitate mobile payments. As Australian banks are rushing to develop and improve applications for smart phones and the Apple iPad tablet this gap will narrow very quickly. These numbers are not surprising given the maturity of mobile phone transaction activity. We predict growth in investment transactions as business conditions improve and the functionality of mobile applications to conduct transactions improves.”

"Mobile banking offers a real source of competitive advantage to Australia banks. While our results seem to show we lag other regions, Australian Banks are fast catching up following the release of a variety of mobile applications in the early part of 2009. Our survey provides Australian Banks with global and regional benchmarks of how popular mobile applications are likely to become in the very near future" Mr Russell advised.

Armenian remittances on the rise

Following a sharp fall caused by the global recession, cash remittances from Armenians working abroad rose by about 10 percent in the first half of 2010, contributing to Armenia’s ongoing economic recovery.

Latest data from the Armenian Central Bank put the total amount of incoming non-commercial wire transfers processed by local banks at almost $490 million, up from $447 million recorded in the same period of last year.

The overall amount of cash inflows, including funding for business transactions, rose by only 3 percent to $617 million. It was equivalent to 16.7 percent of the country’s first-half Gross Domestic Product.

Both commercial and non-commercial remittances, which benefit an considerable part of the country’s population, tumbled by roughly 30 percent last year due to the economic downturn around the world and Russia in particular. That was one of the reasons for a double-digit contraction of the Armenian economy registered in 2009. Official statistics show the economy expanding by 6.7 percent in the first half of 2010 parallel to the global recovery.

Russia, which is home to most of the hundreds of thousands of Armenian migrant workers abroad, accounted for more than 70 percent of cash sent by them to Armenia in January-June. The United States, which also has a sizable Armenian community, remained the second largest source of the remittances, contributing about 7 percent of the total.

The remittances not only boost consumer spending but also enable Armenia to run massive trade and current-account deficits. Their renewed growth was accompanied by a deepening of the country’s trade imbalance.

According to the National Statistical Service (NSS), the first-half trade deficit increased by 15.5 percent to $1.28 billion, despite a 56 percent surge in Armenian exports. It was more than offset by a 24 percent rise in imports, totaling $1.72 billion and exceeding almost four-fold exports.

Rising hard-currency inflows, which accelerated after the first quarter of 2010, appear to have also contributed to a renewed appreciation of the national currency, the dram. It has gained more than 6 percent in nominal value against the U.S. dollar since April.

“Diaspora Bonds” – Remittances as a new source of development finance?

Nigerian banks can create Diaspora bonds as a financial tool to bridge financing gaps in the country, Vicky Johnston, Senior Regional Director, Middle East and Africa, Moneygram International, has said.

Johnston said this in an interview with newsmen on the sidelines of the Banking Outlook Africa conference 2010 in Johannesburg. She stated that Nigeria, with US$10 billion annual remittances, was well positioned to develop Diaspora bonds to stimulate its economy.

"Diaspora bonds are a mechanism whereby developing countries can borrow from their diaspora community abroad to raise financing," she said. She noted that official aid alone was not adequate to bridge the financing gaps in developing countries

Johnston said that Nigeria was one of the highest receivers of remittances in sub-Saharan Africa and should use this for economic development.

It is being done in Ethiopia and Rwanda at the moment and not many other countries are utilizing it around the world, but it could be an interesting thing for the Nigerian market," Johnston said. Shedding more light on the bonds, she said it was developed when the community of the Diaspora abroad provides money as a source of funds or capital that could be used to help in the financing gaps.

"In other words, we are using the Diaspora abroad who have their natural links to their home country of Nigeria, to bridge financing gaps. When you take debt to export ratio and this is a key measure in terms of sovereignty ratings, and factor into that, the foreign exchange that is derived from the remittance business, you can see a decrease of debt to export ratio," she said. Johnston said similar effect would occur when remittances were factored into current account deficit placing the nation in better stead.

She said Nigerian banks have the potential to become number one in the continent in the future. She explained that remittance business is very large in Africa, with funds coming mainly from the USA, and Canada which account for "at least 50-60 per cent of remittances into Anglophone Africa" .Johnston said other countries from where huge remittances come are the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain. Globally, she said the remittance business was worth about US$330 billion.

Unskilled foreign workers are highest remittance senders

The Philippines National Statistics Office (NSO) says laborers or unskilled overseas Filipino workers were the biggest source of remittances in the country last year.

In a statement, the NSO said laborers or unskilled workers posted the highest cash remittance of P18.03 billion from April to September last year among the different occupation groups. However, this was lower compared to the cash remittance sent home in the same period in 2008 of P19.5 billion.

Cash remittances of professional OFWs during the period amounted to P16.5 billion, higher than the P15.12 billion for the period April to September 2008.

The total remittance sent by OFWs during the period April to September 2009 was estimated at P138.5 billion, down by 2.4 percent compared to the same period in 2008 amounting to P141.9 billion.

Cash sent amounted to P102.5 billion, cash brought home P31.4 billion and remittance in kind, P4.5 billion.

Of the total cash remittance sent for the period April to September 2009, about P78 billion were sent through banks, P12.4 billion through other means, P8.6 billion through door-to-door and P3.5 billion pesos through agency or local office and friends or co-workers.

Mobile payments – Cellcom Israel and Citi to offer cash transfer services

Cellcom Israel is entering the financial services market with Citigroup and the Bank Hapoalim’s credit card subsidiary Isracard.

Cellcom and Citibank are to launch a service which will allow remittance transfers from Israel by clients of all local domestic mobile carriers, through Citi's platform and worldwide distribution channels.

Cellcom CEO Amos Shapira said that global remittances, including to and from Israel, are expected to grow by billions of dollars over the coming years. He said that Cellcom saw a potential growth market and decided to enter it. Cellcom only plans to launch the service by the end of 2010. Under the deal Isracard will issue mobile wallets to Cellcom subscribers.

Societe Generale to set up Obopay m-banking solution in Senegal

Societe Generale is using a mobile banking solution from Obopay to offer banking services in Senegal. The technology-agnostic solution being used by Societe Generale marks the fourth country where Obopay’s m-banking solution are being used. Obopay also offers m-banking solutions in the United States, partnering with MasterCard and Citibank, as well as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility, with Nokia in India and with a mobile operator in Kenya.

“In Senegal, traditional banking services are typically very limited; people can spend an entire day each month standing in line to pay for things like their utility services in cash,” said Richard Hababou, managing director of Societe Generale Innovations Group. “Yoban’tel by Obopay allows us to establish innovative and convenient mobile money transfer and payments for those Senegalese who have previously not had access to such services.”

Societe Generale also broadened its distribution channels with the Obopay solution, adding Credit Mutuel du Senegal, a micro-finance agency; Tigo, a mobile operator; and a satellite TV provider Canalsat Horizons. Users can enroll for a mobile payment service and load or pick up cash at these retail outlets as well as banks. “Eighty percent of the population has not had access to a bank account before,” said David Schwartz, head of product and corporate marketing at Redwood, Calif.-based Obopay. The solution uses SMS to enable mobile-phone users to transfer money or make payments.

Each one of Obopay’s deployments is a little different, as each one has a different regulatory environment, and each partnership is slightly different, which shows the flexibility of the solution. In Senegal and the United States, the major partnerships are with financial institutions, in Kenya, a mobile operator is the primary provider; in India, handset maker Nokia is the primary partner and as such, the solution comes preloaded on Nokia handsets, Schwartz said.

Other French-speaking countries could benefit from the service because Societe Generale has such a large reach, Schwartz said. The banking institution employs 157,000 people worldwide. Mobile banking solutions are expected to transform the way people work and live in developing countries because they will have access to cheap financial services. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation earmarked $12.5 million to power Mobile Money for the Unbanked, a program that works with industry players to overcome barriers in deploying m-banking services to the reported 1 billion users worldwide who have phones but no bank accounts.

More Indian women go abroad to work

Deepa Gupta, 22, a mathematics graduate from Ludhiana, thought it a great opportunity to go to a postgraduate course in Michigan University. Two years down the line, she is settled in the US and has been joined by her widowed mother.

Gupta represents a trend — that of Indian women increasingly leaving home turf for professional, rather than personal reasons. The World Bank’s report on ‘Gender, Poverty Reduction and Migration’ says more women from developing countries such as India are migrating to the West independently rather than as dependents. It also says that female migration indirectly helps alleviate poverty.

Neelam Soni, executive with an overseas placement agency in Delhi says women in nursing, teaching, social and voluntary work, the hospitality industry, data-entry operations, sales and even housework are able to migrate to foreign shores.

Social scientist Mala Kapur Shankardass says that even though a large proportion of female migration can still be explained away by marriage (estimates say 80%) it is significant that 20% of all women migrants leave for professional reasons. A decade ago, less than 5% of women migrants worked She says that earlier, male migrants used to belong to the ‘Employed’ category and female to the ‘Not in the Labour Force’. This is changing. Shankardass.

But Shankardass cautions that Indian female contribution to forex remittances is still not properly documented. Official data largely focuses on male remittances.

Nepal’s formal remittances drop because of increased use of non-banking channels

Experts blamed the inflow of remittances through non-banking channels for a reduced recorded remittance flow to the country in the current fiscal year.

“Around 30 to 35 per cent of remittance is suspected to flow through non-banking channels,” said Chandra Prasad Dhakal, president of Nepal Remitters Association (NRA) during an interaction organised here in the capital jointly by NRA and Society of Economic Journalists-Nepal (Sejon).

Since the beginning of this financial year, the inflow of remittance has started slowing down to around 10 per cent against the growth rate of 40 per cent in the last financial year, said the remitters.

Nepal has seen a boom in inflow of remittances due to increased number of Nepali workers going abroad for work. “However the number of migrant workers has not come down in the current fiscal year,” he said adding that it has gone up by 23.7 per cent. “But the remittance inflow has slowed down to an average of 10 per cent,” Dhakal added.

He also suggested the government to exempt tax on remittances and bring a new policy to refund the taxes collected from workers to discourage non-banking channels and an increase in remittance inflow through banking channels.

Nepal received Rs 209 billion through remittances alone in the last fiscal year. In this fiscal year, by the end of first nine months, Nepal has received Rs 1,164.93 billion. “It shows that the inflow in monetary terms has not decreased,” said Bhasker Mani Gyawali, Executive Director of the Forex Department of the central bank. But he did not deny the slowdown.

“It’s not possible to register 50 per cent growth every year,” said former governor of the central bank Krishna Bahadur Manandhar.

“In the last one decade, remittances have become the lifeline of the national economy as its slowdown has pulled the Balance of Payment (BoP) into a deficit of Rs 22 billion,” said economist Dr Chiranjeevi Nepal.

“The slowdown of remittance can be felt badly in the foreign currency reserve,” he said adding that the forex reserve has depleted in the recent months.

“Nepal Rastra Bank’s data of the first nine months reveals that the forex reserve is enough to pay for imports for six months only wheres it was enough for a year during the same period last year,” Nepal added.

“However, the other side of story has been completely ignored. A remittance-dependent economy cannot attain high growth rate,” he pointed out, “In the remittance-fuelled economy, employment generation and productivity take a beating as the money will be pouring in even without much efforts by the citizens. “

The political instability might have contributed to people loosing faith in banking channels and they are resorting to the informal channels for remittance.

The banking sector is feeling the heat of the slowdown in remittances as they are facing the liquidity crunch.

“The government has taken the problem seriously,” assured revenue secretary Krishna Hari Baskota. “Awareness among workers can also help solve the problem,” he said adding that the remittance should be used in the productive sector as the remittance economy can not last long.

“Around 40 per cent of the remittance goes in the savings and 60 per cent is spent on consumption, which in turn fuels imports,” said secretary. “The trend has to be reversed.”

There are around 52 remittance companies in the country. Remittance contributes 23.6 per cent to the GDP and 30 per cent of the population depends on remittance for their livelihood. It has also helped reduce poverty level.

Text-to-phone phishing attacks show enormous drop in the first quarter

According to the latest report from Internet Identity security company (IID), text-to-phone phishing attacks decreased considerably in the first quarter of the current year. Thus, these attacks have dropped by 62% from the previous quarter.

Nevertheless, credit unions appeared to be the most targeted by text-to-phone phishing attacks, with great amount of them being spoofed in text-to-phone cases. In these attacks, cyber criminals impersonate companies by text message and try to get people to call a fake interactive voice response (IVR) system designed to steal account information.

Meanwhile, the research found that cyber criminals increasingly posed as relief organizations to launch phishing attacks, claiming to help victims of recent disasters, like the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile.

Besides, increasing volume of phishing was used to carry out Internet Domain Name System hijackings, specifically with China's biggest search engine Baidu.com.

Importantly, the major share of phishing volume moved to targeting money transfer sites.

Mobile payments set to double

The value of purchases made by mobile phones is set to more than double by 2012 on back of increase in smartphone usage and greater consumer acceptance of new payment methods

Analyst Jupiter Research has forecast that the rise in smartphones will fuel an increase in mobile payment transactions that will see their value more than double to US$200 billion by 2012.

Jupiter Research said the availability of secure, easy-to-use payment applications and the growing realization of users that they can make e-commerce purchases by mobile will drive the value of payments for physical and digital goods from under $100 million this year to $200 million in two years.

Other findings from the “Mobile Payments for Digital & Physical Goods: Players, Markets & Opportunities, 2010-2014” report indicate that the frequency of physical goods purchased will be higher than average in developed regions such as North America and Western Europe; and brands, retailers and merchants have an opportunity to increase their revenues through targeted marketing campaigns, using apps and mobile web payments as a convenience play for users.

Report author Howard Wilcox said: “Our research showed that the purchase experience has been enhanced by improved mobile commerce transaction processes due to faster mobile networks, more powerful devices and much more user-friendly smartphone apps.

“Amazon Payments for example has recently introduced payment processing tools for mobile devices, enabling smartphone users to buy with one click.”

Dubai Islamic Bank introduces Al Islami Mobile Banking

Dubai Islamic Bank has launched Al Islami Mobile Banking, which provides various secure and banking services round-the-clock, through a customized mobile-based website.

Customers will be able to check their account and card statements and details, including Murhaba accounts, investment accounts and funds. Customers can also open an investment account, request a chequebook, and issue or cancel a card through this service, said DIB.

Additionally, customers can make payments and fund transfers to any predefined beneficiary, while registering for additional eChannel services, such as SMS and phone banking and eStatements.

Musabbah Al Qaizi, head of electronic banking services department at Dubai Islamic Bank, said: "Al Islami Mobile Banking is leveraged on the existing Al Islami Online Banking service which has been a great success since its launch in November 2009. DIB customers can now conduct all their daily banking needs without worrying about branch opening hours or carrying a laptop with them. It all can be done using mobile

Remittances - MoneyGram expands in Nigeria

MoneyGram International has announced that it will provide money transfer services at more than 500 First Bank of Nigeria locations across the west African nation. The agreement with First Bank of Nigeria PLC expands MoneyGram's presence in Nigeria, which dates to 1998.

First Bank, established in 1894, is Nigeria's oldest bank, with one of Nigeria's largest networks, MoneyGram said.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, is ranked among the world's top 10 receiving countries for money transfers, MoneyGram said. The World Bank estimates that $10 billion in remittances was sent to Nigeria last year, with the U.S. the primary sending country.

Nigeria is widely recognized as the country of origin of many e-mail scams and financial fraud operations involving money transfers.

Company spokeswoman Lori Burzynski said MoneyGram data show that less than one-half of 1 percent of the company's total transactions represent third-party fraud. She said MoneyGram has committed "significant resources to building a state-of-the-art consumer anti-fraud program, and we continue to improve the program."

Filipinos in Canada swindled out of remittance money

Filipinos who sent money through a remittance center discovered that they had been cheated out of their money. An estimated Can$100,000 worth of remittances never reached their intended recipients in the Philippines.

Ofelia Hermosa is a victim of a remittance company which allegedly stole money she gave them to send back home. Hermosa used the maximum limit on her credit cards just to raise more than Can$8,000 to send to her ailing mother. Being a patron of “Jak En Poy”, she sent her money through the store.

Several days later, she found out that her mother still had not received anything. When she confronted the owners, they blamed their agent in the Philippines who allegedly ran off with all the other remittances.

Albert Quidalos, who also lost more than Can$1,000 to Jak En Poy, estimates that about 90 other Filipinos got promissory notes from owners Danny and Irene Ongkeko. He said Danny Ongkeko assured him, he would return the money. But when Quidalos went back to the agency, he discovered the store has already changed its name and now has new owners.

Quidalos and Hermosa are asking other victims to join them in filing charges against the Ongkekos. But Gina Oliveros, a contract worker in Langley, British Columbia, said she cannot afford lawyer’s fees.

Another victim, Leopold Dallo also hopes that the Ongkekos will hear their pleas and return the money.

But Ed Gloriani, who lost Can $2,500, is taking action against the couple. He asked a relative in the Philippine National Police to track down the Ongkekos, who are believed to have gone back home in the Philippines to hide from their claimants here.

Documents reveal that as early as November 2009, Danny Ongkeko had already filed for bankruptcy, which when approved, will make it harder for their victims to get their money back.

Kenya' April remittances up slightly: Central Bank

Kenyan remittances rose slightly to $52.68 million in April from $52.31 million a month earlier, and were up from $48.12 million in the same month last year, the Central Bank of Kenya said this week.

"The pick up in April ... can indirectly be attributed to improving economic conditions in the regions of origin, and improved prospects for economic recovery at home," the bank said in a statement.

The central bank said the main source of the money remained North America followed by Europe.

Typically, Kenyans living abroad send money back home to help their families and to invest in various sectors like real estate.

They sent a total of $609 million last year, down from $611 million in 2008. Remittances rank among the country's top sources of foreign exchange alongside tourism, tea and horticulture.

Remittances - Andhra Bank links with UAE Exchange Centre for faster service

Public sector lender, Andhra Bank has entered into an agreement with UAE Exchange Centre of Kuwait in order to bring up a special scheme which would facilitate speedy remittances to its customers.

The service would allow NRI customers to remit money from any of the UAE Exchange Centres located in Kuwait. This money would be credited to the accounts of Andhra Bank customers across all 1,560 branches of the bank in India. The amount would be credited the next day after being remitted.

An SMS alert would be generated to the beneficiaries in India confirming that the amount has been credited to their account, the bank said.