Latest news with #Instapay
GMA Network
02-07-2025
- Business
- GMA Network
Higala-RCBC tie up onboards 8 rural banks to InstaPay
In an effort to expand the digital footprint of rural banks, the partnership between Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) and homegrown instant payments infrastructure provider Higala Group Inc. has onboarded eight rural banks across the country to InstaPay. Higala and RCBC have jointly created Synerfi, an open payments platform that reduces barriers and accelerates the participation of smaller financial institutions in InstaPay. The companies developed Synerfi to help rural banks as well as microfinance institutions expand their digital transactions through InstaPay as 'traditionally, many rural and community banks have been excluded from the digital financial ecosystem due to regulatory and technological constraints.' Among the onboarded rural banks in Synerfi include Rural Bank of San Antonio Inc., Rural Bank of Lipa City (Batangas), Inc., Progressive Rural Bank Inc., Banco Abucay Inc., Rural Bank of Hermosa (Bataan) Inc., Money Mall Rural Bank Inc., First Philippine Partners Bank Inc. (A Rural Bank), and Lagawe Highlands Rural Bank, Inc. 'This marks the beginning of empowering the underserved banking sector by enabling them to offer digital banking services that are otherwise available only to mainstream and traditional banks,' said Winston Damarillo, president and CEO of Higala. "Connecting rural banks to Instapay and the wider digital ecosystem is not simply an act of digitalization, but a deeper commitment to accelerate financial inclusion in underserved areas. SynerFi continues to demonstrate its promise to drive financial access beyond urban areas and materialize the government's sustainable agenda," said Lito Villanueva, executive vice president and chief innovation and inclusion officer of RCBC. "RCBC is excited to welcome more participants with the shared mission to make banking services accessible to all Filipinos into the instant payment ecosystem," Villanueva added. The RCBC official said the bank and Higala are 'targeting 40 rural banks to be onboarded.' Under their partnership, Higala is providing the technology to operationalize SynerFi while RCBC is acting as the sponsor platform bank and manage the essential regulatory requirements, such as compliance, clearing, and settlement. 'SynerFi seeks to empower rural banks like Rural Bank of San Antonio to access world-class digital banking capabilities. Launching these services with zero capital intensity and without the heavy burden of building dedicated in-house tech and compliance teams is invaluable, enabling us to offer customers top-tier technology and services, truly digitizing our reach.' said Ronaldo Recto, president of the Rural Bank of San Antonio. Meanwhile, Higala also secured a fresh seed funding of $4 million from venture capitalists Talino Venture Studios, Chemonics International, Kadan Capital, Tenco Capital, and 1982 Ventures. 'Fresh funds from our investors will help accelerate Higala's capabilities of powering SynerFi and helping more financial institutions grow and expand their services to their customers and become active players in the digital economy,' Damarilio said. 'After successfully raising our target seed funding of $2.8 million, we've expanded our round to $4 million due to increased interest in Higala and signaling investor confidence in our product,' said Chemonics International president and CEO Jamey Butcher. —AOL, GMA Integrated News
CairoScene
25-03-2025
- Business
- CairoScene
Instapay Will Charge Fee on Transfers Starting April 1st
The transfer fee will amount to 0.1% of the total transaction. Mar 25, 2025 Instapay has announced that, starting April 1st, 2025, it will introduce a transfer fee of 0.1% of the transaction value, with a minimum charge of EGP 0.5 and a maximum of EGP 20 per transaction. Additionally, the app will offer each customer 10 free balance inquiries or mini-statement requests per month, after which a fee of EGP 0.5 per request will apply. Users will be able to view the applicable fee before confirming any transaction, and customer support will remain available through the app's official channels. With 12 million users by the end of 2024, Instapay aims to use this new fee structure to fund the rollout of new services and features, in line with the nation's vision for full digital transformation.
See - Sada Elbalad
29-01-2025
- Business
- See - Sada Elbalad
Remittances from Egyptians Abroad Jump to $26.3 Billion
Taarek Refaat Remittances from Egyptians abroad rose by 65.4% year-on-year in November to reach $2.6 billion, but slowed down from $2.9 billion in October. According to data from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), remittances during the first 5 months of the fiscal year—which begins in July and ends in June—reached $13.8 billion, up 77% from $7.8 billion in the same period last year. At the same time, remittances during the first 11 months of 2024 reached $26.3 billion, compared to $17.9 billion in the same period in 2023. Unifying the exchange rate eliminated the parallel market, where currency traders formed networks to attract remittances during the height of the currency crisis that the country suffered from for more than two years since the war in Russia and Ukraine until early February 2024, when the country concluded the huge Ras al-Hikma deal. The Ras El Hekma deal brought in $24 billion in inflows, in addition to converting $11 billion in debts into the Egyptian pound, which helped the Central Bank liberalize the exchange rate and eliminate the parallel market. Recently, the Central Bank announced the activation of instant transfers for Egyptians abroad via the "Instapay" application in a number of countries.
