BayaniPay Inc., a California-based neobank launched March 17, reduces cross-border remittance costs for Filipino-Americans and other migrant professionals sending funds home by doing away with transaction fees.听听
Through a partnership, clients of the digital-only bank will also be able to transact at any of the branches of听听(EWB), the largest Asian-American bank in the US.听
鈥淲e call it omniservice, where any customer can walk into [our bank] and get the same exact service as anyone else鈥 said Parker Shi, East West Bank executive vice president and chief operating officer. 鈥淲e are looking at not only doing business in the US, but also serving Filipinos from the Philippines.鈥澨听
Mr. Damarillo said serving immigrants is 鈥渙ne of the most underappreciated opportunities there is.鈥澨听
鈥淚f you land the immigrants, it鈥檚 a very interesting opportunity moving forward,鈥 he said at the hybrid launch.听听
The neobank reduces 30% of the friction cost of sending funds home by removing the transaction fee for the service, and only earning a margin on its 鈥渕arket-leading鈥 exchange rates. Other remittance firms charge for both.听
Apart from cross-border remittance payments, BayaniPay offers direct digital cash payments and EWB-powered debit cards. An emergency credit line is also in the pipeline.听听
鈥淲e co-designed this with merchant partners,鈥 added Mr. Damarillo, describing the neobank鈥檚 direct pay function that it 鈥渃opied鈥 from Philippine e-wallets like GCash and PayMaya:听听
鈥淵ou take your Bayani wallet, go to a grocery like Seafood City,听present your QR code to the cash register, and do a regular transfer of funds. Merchants don鈥檛 have to pay fees to Visa and Mastercard.鈥澨
Seafood City, the largest Filipino-owned supermarket chain in the US, and BDO Unibank are among BayaniPay鈥檚 partners.听听
Mr. Damarillo, a Filipino-American and听Silicon Valley veteran with three successful exits, moved to the US two decades ago to follow his now-wife, as well as to realize the American Dream.听听听
鈥淢y parents put together all their dollars, sent me off to the airport, and wished me good luck,鈥 he said. 鈥淸Mine] is not an uncommon story… The US delivered. I鈥檓 among the four million Pinoys in the US who have become an important part of the economy.鈥澨
Money sent home by Filipino migrants听rose to $2.668 billion in January from $2.603 billion a year earlier, reflecting improving employment prospects abroad despite recent surges in听coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)听infections.听听
The Filipino-American community is the third-largest Asian-American group in the US It accounted for听in 2019. 鈥斕Patricia B. Mirasol
