Philippine National Bank partners with Bank of China

Agreement is part of Philippines lender’s goal of expanding its non-Filipino remittance business. 

The Philippine National Bank (PNB) has signed an agreement with state-owned Bank of China (BOC) in handling remittances of Italy-based Chinese nationals to their homeland.

The deal, PNB said on Wednesday, expands the market coverage of unit PNB Italy SpA, which was established to facilitate remittances of thousands of Italy-based Filipinos.

“This is a significant market considering that there are about 745,000 Chinese overseas contract workers in Italy at present,” PNB, the country’s seventh-largest bank in assets, said in a statement.

PNB, one of the major remittance service providers in the Philippines, said it was looking to establish more strategic partnerships to expand its non-Filipino remittance business, particularly in Europe.

Remittances to China in 2008 reached $34 billion, according to World Bank data.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has projected a 6-percent increase in remittances to be coursed through banks this year, from last year’s record volume of $17.3 billion.

View the full story in News Release  Business Mirror.