Vancity offers free service for sending money to families and friends in the Philippines during flood crisis

August 13, 2012

Vancouver, BC.  Vancity is waiving fees for sending money to the Philippines through our Smart Money remittance program until the end of August to support our members from the Philippine community who need to send funds to family and friends being impacted by the worst floods to hit the country since 2009.

“We extend our heartfelt support to the community who are concerned for their loved ones being impacted by the devastation of the floods in Manila,” says Jean-Marc Handfield, Vice President Payment Solutions and Member Services Centre. “We want to show our support by removing fees associated with sending money to the organizations or people in the Philippines to help with the flood relief through our Smart Money  program.”

Smart Money is a secure way to transfer money to the Philippines using the beneficiary’s Smart mobile phone number.  Once the remittance is sent from a Vancity branch, the recipient is notified through a free text message and the funds are readily available through a Smart Money account. There are 47 million subscribers of Smart cell phones in the Philippines.

Vancity partnered last year with the Philippines’ leading wireless services provider, Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) and top Philippine bank, BDO Unibank  Inc. (BDO) to provide the remittance program via Smart Money™, which enables the transfer of pesos to the Philippines quickly, conveniently and inexpensively.

Here’s how it works:

• Members can go into a Vancity branch to send a mobile remittance to their family/friends in the Philippines. Recipients must have a Smart Mobile phone in order to receive the notification of funds being sent.
•  Individuals sending funds need to know the recipient’s mobile Smart phone number to ensure the correct person receives the funds.
• The beneficiary receives a free text notification on their phone within minutes of the transfer to advise funds are available.  If they have a Smart Money account and card linked to their Smart mobile phone number,  they can access the funds immediately.  If they only have a Smart mobile phone they will be advised  in the transfer of funds notification to apply for a Smart Money account and card which will cost a one time set-up fee of 120PHP which will allow them  access to the funds.
• The maximum amount that currently can be sent through this service is 40,000 Pesos (approximately $900 Canadian dollars).

About Vancity
At Vancity we make you good money by putting money to good.  Our vision of redefining wealth incorporates personal and community well-being. We have distributed $221 million to members through dividends and to communities through grants and community investment initiatives since 1994. We are a member of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values—a network of the world’s leading sustainable banks sharing the commitment to achieving triple-bottom-line impact through responsible banking practices. We are A Living Wage employer and Canada’s largest community credit union, with $16.1 billion in assets, more than 479,500 members and 59 branches throughout Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Victoria and Squamish. www.vancity.com | @vancity.

For more information contact:
mediarelations@vancity.com
778-837-0394