Myanmar’s Shwe Bank Ties Up with Everex to Use Blockchain in Remittance Services

By Dmitriy

BTC Wires: Accordingly to the UN data, roughly 3 million migrant workers from Myanmar currently live in Thailand and have to transfer money to their families back home via informal networks in order to evade the high remittance fees. Since these networks are unregulated, they are often unreliable and fraudulent, leaving little room for seeking redressal.

As executive VC of Shwe Urban and Rural Development Bank, U Thein Zaw said, informal channels put these migrants at a risk when it comes to their money.

The Shwe bank is planning to utilize a blockchain network to provide Myanmar-Thailand remittance services. A Fintech startup from Singapore called Everex is supplying the digital remittance platform for this service. This is expected to make transaction more cost-effective, fast and secure across borders. World Bank records indicate that on an average, Thailand-Myanmar transfer fees amount to roughly 11.62% with some local banks deducting up to 19.20%.

Blockchain, although still a nascent technology, is particularly useful for securing advantages like transparency cost-effectiveness, immutable record-keeping, high speed and safety in cross-border transactions. Thailand’s True Money is another tech-oriented start up like Everex that can play a role in cutting transaction costs. However, blockchain still faces challenges on the regulatory front and is still merely an emerging mode of money transfer. The low cost guaranteed by this technology is a major pro it can build on. Everex and Shwe are presently focused on building the new service and make it functional and this remittance service is expected to find application in other Asian countries as well, once the Myanmar, Thailand area is covered. However, Everex is just one of the start ups to try applying blockchain in remittance services. Bitspark from Hong Kong and Toast from Singapore and older industry members like Western Union are also joining the fray.

Blockchain is getting adopted more and more in diverse fields because once records are updated in this kind of a network, it cannot be deleted unless with great difficulty and with knowledge of the parties involved. This particular property, which promotes transparency and successfully controls chances of fraud in transactions, is a major reason why blockchain is proving to be such a reliable bet for firms like Everex. As Wall Street honcho Bart Smith had opined about a month back, cryptocurrencies are a safe bet for cross-border transfers of money. By extension, we can easily consider blockchain to be a great solution for the hassles of money transfer.