People living in New Zealand reportedly now can send money to loved ones in Tonga at a lower price. Senders can purchase vouchers with New Zealand dollars from Kiwi Bank, which has 471 branches in New Zealand, and receivers get the remittance in local currency in their Tonga Development Bank accounts. To conform with anti-money laundering regulation, the sender must register online with a mobile phone number and send a scan of her know-your-customer documentation to Tonga Development Bank.
The platform, which is known as ‘Ave Pa’anga Pau, has attracted 1,000 users. Leta Kami, the CEO of Tonga Development Bank, describes plans to expand the service as follows: “Using our existing ‘Ave Pa’anga Pau platform, we will be able to offer more digitalized financial services that will make it easier for Tongans living abroad to not only send money home but to conduct other transactions like paying for school fees, insurance for their families, or simply to have money saved up for when they return home from the seasonal workers scheme.”
The bank was established by the Kingdom of Tonga under the Tonga Development Bank Act of 1977. For the 12 months ending June 2018, the bank reports revenue of TOP 7.4 million (USD 3.3 million) on total assets of TOP 145 million (USD 65 million), return on assets of 1.7 percent and return on equity of 8.8 percent.
‘Ave Pa’anga Pau was created with the support of the Fiji-based Pacific Financial Inclusion Program (PFIP) of the UN Capital Development Fund and the UN Development Programme. PFIP is funded by the EU and the governments of Australia and New Zealand.
Sources and Additional Resources
PFIP press release
http://www.pfip.org/newsroom/press-releases/2019-2/partnership-boost-new-innovative-digital-financial-services-tongans/
Tonga Development Bank
https://tdb.to
Kiwi Bank
http://kiwibank.co.nz
Tonga Development Bank Annual Report 2018
https://asset.tdb.to/files/PDF/AnnualReport2018English1.pdf
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