Wing Signs Deal for Cheaper Cash Transfers

Local mobile payment company Wing has signed an agreement with Thailand’s Kasikornbank to provide cross-border cash transfer services to some 700,000 Cambodian workers with jobs in Thailand, the companies announced in a statement Thursday.

The deal means that Cambodians working in Thailand will be able to pay a flat rate of 6,000 riel (about $1.50) per transfer, as opposed to the approximately 10 percent fee currently being charged by informal brokers who handle remittances for workers.

Kasikornbank, previously named the Thai Farmers Bank, has 1,124 branches across Thailand, including 800 outside of Bangkok.

Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians have migrated across the border in recent years to take up jobs in the industrial, construction, agriculture and tourism sectors.

Soum Chankea, the coordinator for rights group Adhoc in the border province of Banteay Meanchey, said workers have previously relied on middlemen to send their earnings back across the border.

“The service charged by the agents depends on negotiations between the agents and workers,” he said, adding that workers paid about 10 percent of the transfer amount on average.

sothear@cambodiadaily.com

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