Leading Philippines mobile operator Smart is to offer an international remittance service based on technology supplied by French vendor eServGlobal and its partner BICS, a vendor owned by Belgacom. The two technology vendors specialise in supplying the underlying technology for mobile operator-centric remittance services. They have developed a hub that enables interconnection between operators and mobile money systems. Their service is called HomeSend.

The Philippines is a leading recipient of remittance payments from its citizens working abroad. It receives an estimated US$20 billion a year in payments. And Smart and rival Globe are already seen as innovators in pioneering the popularity of domestic mobile money services.

The same two technology vendors have already supplied rival Globe with its Homesend service back in February 2010 when they struck an agreement with the mobile operator’s m-commerce subsidiary called G-Xchange. The agreement meant that subscribers of any other operator connected to the hub could transfer money electronically to users of G-Xchange’s GCash service.

Just a fortnight ago, Ericsson Money Services announced that it will launch remittance services between the two operators in the Philippines and seven European countries.