Bank-transferred cash remittances grew by 6.4 percent year-on-year to $14.918 billion as of end-June from $14.019 billion, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Monday.
The BSP expects cash remittances sent by overseas Filipinos will grow by four-percent this year after the pandemic-induced 0.8 percent contraction in 2020.
For the first six months, cash remittances are mostly sourced from the US, Malaysia and South Korea.
The US continue to have the highest share of overall remittances with 40.1 percent in the first half of 2021 because a lot of correspondent banks used by remittance companies are located in the US and it will reflect as the country of source. Other top country sources are Singapore, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Qatar, and Taiwan. “The combined remittances from these top ten countries accounted for 78.4 percent of total cash remittances,” said the BSP.
For the month of June only, cash remittances coursed through banks increased by seven percent to $2.638 billion from $2.465 billion same period in 2020. The BSP noted that cash remittances expanded due to the “increase in receipts from land-based workers by 7.1 percent (to $2.136 billion from $1.994 billion) and sea-based workers by 6.5 percent (to $502 million from $472 million).”
For just June, personal remittances – formerly known as fund transfers via the “padala system” -- also increased by 7.3 percent to $2.936 billion from $2.737 billion same time last year.
Personal remittances is the sum of personal transfers and compensation of employees. The reporting of personal remittances was formalized 10 years ago.
According to the BSP, personal remittances sent by land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more grew by 7.1 percent to $2.319 billion in June, versus $2.164 billion last year. The sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year also remitted more, it’s up by 6.4 percent to $548 million from $515 million in 2020.
For the first six months, personal remittances rose by 6.7 percent to $16.616 billion from $15.573 billion in 2020.