President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered to lower bank charges for the sake of hundreds of thousands of overseas Filipino workers all over the world.

“The president is determined to carry out the remittance fee cut soonest to help the OFWs,” said Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye who joined the President’s seven-day official visit in Europe.

“Concrete plans are under way to strengthen government-private sector linkages to trim down the remittance fees by the banking system,” Bunye added.

Bunye also said that the Philippine Postal Bank (PPB) will soon be converted to Overseas Filipino Workers Bank so that it will serve the welfare of OFWs. It will also further strengthen the economic ties between the Philippines and Europe.

“The government is considering opening the Philippine remittance programme to a Swiss challenge to ensure that overseas remittances are coursed through banks charging the lowest fees,” explained former Labor Secretary Patricia Sto Tomas.

“A number of banks are jockeying to serve as conduits of OFW remittances,” Sto Tomas added.

However, observers criticized her for estimating at 8 per cent the prevailing bank charges on OFW remittances. Many OFWs want the 2 per cent fees charged by Mexican banks on foreign remittances of Mexican overseas workers.

Due to the President’s program for OFW remittances, the Manila-based Asian Development Bank calls that the Southeast Asian countries must invite the overseas workers to send their remittances through the banking system.

”Billions of dollars of remittances by maids and other migrant workers in Asia's wealthier economies bypass the region's banking systems,” the ADB said.

According to ADB the money from the overseas workers could be leveraged as a financial tool to develop the labor exporting countries if the funds were channeled through the formal banking system.

The ADB also recommended the private banks to offer credits, long term-savings and insurance as services for overseas workers.