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Remittance firm adds new sub-center on Saipan
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Posted on Apr 03 2000
Philippine National Bank’s Foreign Exchange Center has opened a new sub-center in Puerto Rico, which brings to eight the total number of its outlets throughout the Northern Marianas, according to PNB general manager Raul Boongaling.
The new sub-center in Puerto Rico, which opened late March, is the seventh remittance center of the Philippine-government controlled financial institution on Saipan. PNB has one remittance center on Tinian and on Rota.
The company began providing remittance services from the Northern Marianas to the Philippines middle of 1998. During its first year of operation, the company opened several outlets on Saipan.
Mr. Boongaling said the expansion is in line with PNB’s growing share of the local market spurred by the increasing awareness among Filipino workers in the islands about how their remittances help nourish the Philippine economy.
PNB Foreign Exchange Center directly remits the dollars to Philippine banks, which will ensure that the greenback will circulate within the local economy.
In 1998, the volume of remittances of the PNB offices in the mainland United States and Micronesia was 88 percent above the target of $105 million, and 126 percent better than the previous year’s volume of $87.4 million.
PNB’s U.S. and Micronesia offices account for 46 percent of the total remittance volume of the bank’s overseas offices and subsidiaries. PNB Corporation in Guam and Saipan collectively registered the highest percentage increase of 475 percent in 1998.
A Philippine government-controlled banking institution, the remittance center offers bank-to-bank transfer, as well as dollar-to-peso and dollar-to-dollar services to major cities and provinces in the Philippines.
The Philippine Central Bank considers remittances made by OFWs a vital source of dollars for the country’s economy, though the absence of dollars in the local foreign exchange market last year drove the Philippine currency past the PhP40:$1 level.
