Transferring funds from a debit card account issued in the United States to one in Mexico will be a far easier process under an agreement Global Payout Inc. reached with a lending company in Mexico, a Global Payout executive says.
The San Diego-based payments provider announced Aug. 19 it will work with Mexico City-based Mi Adelanto Corp. SAPI de CV to offer prepaid debit cards in Mexico. First California Bank of Westlake Village, Calif., issues the cards for Global Payout.
“This agreement allows Mexican nationals working legally in the United States with U.S.-based prepaid debit cards to use their cell phones to allow a transfer of [funds] from those cards into an account in Mexico that would be [tied] to a prepaid debit card in pesos,” Global Payout CEO Jim Hancock tells PaymentsSource.
The funds transfer essentially is no different from a person making an online transfer of funds from one account to another at their own bank, Hancock says. A Mexican worker in the U.S. would send a text message from his cell phone to alert Mi Adelanto and relatives in Mexico of the intention to transfer funds from his U.S. prepaid debit card account to a Mexican prepaid debit card account, Hancock explains.
Mi Adelanto would process the request to the appropriate bank to secure the funds in Mexican currency and make them available for use on the MasterCard debit cards Mi Adelanto supports, Hancock adds.
A debit card issued in Mexico with pesos has much lower usage and foreign-exchange rates than if the relatives in Mexico tried to use a U.S.-issued debit card, Hancock says.
The arrangement marks the first time Global Payout Inc. has been able to provide a service to Mexican nationals, Hancock adds.
“Everyone is trying to do a lot of business in Mexico, and this was made possible because of a recent relationship we were able to build with Mi Adelanto,” Hancock says. “And it helps the workers with a payroll debit card or general use debit card to move money to relatives in Mexico.”
Global Payout has plans to incorporate the same program in Guatemala and El Salvador by late fall this year, using the same formula of providing a system to route transfer requests.
MasterCard is being used in the arrangement with Mexico, but Hancock says his company also works with Visa Inc. when setting up other payments systems.
The agreement also allows Global Payout to offer cash advances for payroll, direct deposits for employers and government payments to Mexican workers through the services of Mi Adelanto, which works with a number of banks and large employers in Mexico, Hancock says.
Global Payout intends to roll out a business-to-business international payment platform called Global Payout eWallet by the end of 2011. It will provide businesses a means to make payments to suppliers in 200 different countries by moving funds to bank accounts via an online or smartphone process through a debit card accepted in those countries or in a specific region of a country.
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