HomeSend Expansion
HomeSend becomes the first international remittance provider to give users access to Indosat’s 24,000 locations and 60 million users. HomeSend is a joint venture created by MasterCard, eServGlobal and BICS.
HomeSend Expands Remittance Offering
HomeSend, eServGlobal and BICS announced an agreement with Indosat to make remittance services available in Indonesia.Through Indosat’s Dompetku Mobile Money platform, users can safely send and receive funds across Indonesia’s largest mobile money network. The HomeSend service enables consumers to send money to and from mobile money accounts, payment cards, bank accounts or cash outlets – regardless of their location or that of the recipient. The International Fund of Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the United Nations, estimates that 6.5M Indonesians will send funds to family or friends back home in 2014. The World Bank estimates that in total, $7.5B in remittance payments will be made into Indonesia this year.
Microfinance Relaunches MIX Market
The Microfinance Information Exchange has re-launched the “MIX Market”
global platform for micro-finance data, analytics and business
information through a partnership with The MasterCard Foundation. Developed to help improve transparency in the rapidly growing but diverse
microfinance industry, MIX Market is an online marketplace for data,
analytics and
benchmarks on the institutions that provide financial services to the
world’s poor. The data base is the deepest in the industry, with financial,
operational and social performance data on more than 1400 microfinance institutions (MFIs)
throughout the developing world.
The website was redesigned and the underlying database rebuilt to allow for
the rapidly expanding network of microfinance institutions and their broader array
of products, services and metrics. The new platform also provides increased
functionality and tools for all users. MIX Market now includes the
availability of all content in English, Spanish, French and Russian, with Arabic content
coming online in early 2010.
MFI Benchmarks to be Released in December
The Microfinance “Information Exchange” business information and data services provider for the global microfinance industry released its latest data set, the “2008 MFI Benchmarks,” the first of its kind to reflect the impact of the financial crisis and the subsequent global economic slowdown on microfinance providers.The benchmarks cover financial and performance data from 1084 MFIs (microfinance institutions) throughout Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Latin America for calendar year 2008. The 2008 MFI Benchmarks will be featured in the #19 issue of MicroBanking Bulletin, due out Dec. 30 from MIX and is available for download at: www.themix.org.
OCT DEBT
FSV Payments and MiCash have teamed to provide a prepaid debt
“card-to-cash” money transfer solution. With this solution, users pay a
flat fee, regardless of the remittance destination or transfer amount, and
are allowed to collect cash at any of the Bancomer Transfer Service
locations
around the world. The recipient can also opt to have the funds deposited
to an account of their choice and is given the option to establish a
list of
fund recipients. FSV Payment Systems provides stored-value and prepaid
debit solutions across various sectors and is headquartered in Houston,
Texas while MiCash provides financial services to the underserved
consumer-segment with remittance solutions and cards.
Intelli-Check Names Congressman to the Board
NY-based Intelli-Check has named former Wisconsin Representative to the Unites States Congress, Jim Moody, to its Board of Directors. Mr. Moody served on the powerful Ways & Means Committee which oversees the entire federal tax system, nearly two thirds of federal spending, including Social Security and Medicare, as well U.S. trade laws and federal debt management, during his five terms in Congress. Mr. Moody is currently with Morgan Stanley in Washington, DC. Previously, he served as president and CEO of InterAction, an association of U.S. organizations working overseas in economic development and humanitarian relief.