Everex, a Singapore-based financial technology firm, has partnered with Myanmar’s Shwe Bank to introduce blockchain-Powered remittance Services between Myanmar and Thailand.
The blockchain firm claims that the partnership will enable millions of Myanmar migrant workers living in Thailand to send money home instantly and securely at much lower transaction costs than traditional remittance methods.
Blockchain in Remittances
The remittance industry stands as one of the most disrupted industries by blockchain technology. The reasons for this are not far-fetched as the comparative advantages which the technology boasts over traditional remittance systems are easy to identify.
The speed of transaction, negligible cost and decentralized auditability of blockchain remittance processes are some of the leading factors that are behind its increasing adoption rate. These factors appear to be suitable for a significant fraction of the global migrant community who are always sending money back home to their families.
According to the UN Migration Agency, there are about about three million Myanmar migrant workers live in Thailand. The majority of this population adopt crude and informal means to send money home in an attempt to avoid the high fees that are charged by traditional remittances. This exposes them to substantial risks and poorly coordinated procedures.
“Myanmar people working in Thailand are foreign currency earners of our country, and their hard-earned money is at risk when they send it home via informal channels”, says U Thein Zaw, Shwe Bank’s Executive Vice Chairman.
Zaw elaborates that Shwe Bank and Everex have partnered to offer faster, less expensive and, most importantly, safer money transfers using Everex’s digital remittance platform. “I look forward to working with Everex and expect this technology to greatly improve financial inclusion for Myanmar migrant workers”, he concludes.
Reaching the Underserved Population
By partnering with the mid-tier challenger bank, Everex also intends to employ blockchain technology in eliminating high remittance fees, reduce money transfer time to under a minute and provide a clear audit trail of the entire transaction. This is an innovation that is considered as a huge step away from what is currently obtained in the industry.
One area of development where most emerging fintech solutions are focusing their efforts is reaching the unbanked and the underbanked population of the world. According to statistics, nearly 2.5 billion of the world’s population do not use formal banks or semi-formal microfinance services. 2.2 billion of this population are found in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle-East.
As part of its services, Shwe Rural & Urban Development Bank (Shwe Bank) is working to foster financial inclusion for the underbanked population within its region. To this effect, the bank has adopted financial technology for use throughout its distribution network of about 410 banking agents across Myanmar in an effort to provide quality service for customers currently underserved by traditional banks.
This incidentally justifies the purpose of this partnership between theabove-mentionedd companies. This collaboration will enhance the achievement of financial inclusion for the underserved without the incidental barriers of infrastructure, cost and accessibility that have been responsible for the existing industrial limitations.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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