Filipino expats increasingly turn to digital channels for sending money home

More Filipinos living abroad are choosing digital methods to send money back to the Philippines, with a focus on supporting education as the main reason for these transactions, a Visa report showed.

Based on the “Money Travels: 2024 Digital Remittances Adoption Report”, 75 percent of Filipinos overseas said they used digital services this year, slightly higher than 71 percent last year.

Visa Country Manager for the Philippines Jeff Navarro said that the increasing numbers of Filipinos shifting to digital services was due to safety, convenience, and speed.

“They [consumers] want speed and security. They want to receive it in the most convenient manner. And because the nature of remittances is pinaghirapan, then they want to make sure that it's secure,” Navarro said during an online briefing on Wednesday.

According to the study, around 62 percent of surveyed Filipino individuals find digital solutions as the most secure way of receiving remittances from other parties abroad.

In Asia, India received the most remittances from digital services with a 76 percent preference rate, followed by the Philippines, and China and Singapore with 71 percent.

Navarro also cited the minimal costs of remitting money through digital services compared to remitting it with cash.

“Based on the World Bank survey in 2017 to 2021, if we compare $200 that's being sent remittance to cash, the average cost is roughly around 6.9 percent of the principle of $200,” he said.

“When you talk about remittance that's sent to a card which is really digital the average cost is only 4.6 percent,” he added.

On the other hand, 58 percent of Filipinos abroad said that they plan to use digital platforms in remitting money to the country in the future. In comparison, only 24 percent say the same for physical remittances.

This year, the Philippine market remained one of the top remittance inflows in Asia Pacific, accounting for more than 60 percent of all inbound remittance transaction volumes in the region.

Meanwhile, Navarro also cited the potential value of $151 billion in outbound remittances, which is the process of transferring money to another country, with the bulk of it coming from the business side.

He said that there has been a growing trend of small and midsized enterprises, overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), and Filipinos studying abroad remitting cash to procurements from other countries.

According to the central bank, personal remittances from OFWs climbed to $3.05 billion from $2.97 billion in March last year. The bulk of this came from the United States (US), Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Singapore.