MarCoPay: Making Money Transfers Smooth Sailing

February 25, 2020

Usually, seafarers would have to wait for their ship to dock and go to a bank or a remittance center when they want to send money to their loved ones. With money transfers being made easier thanks to money transfer apps, the same convenience will be extended to seafarers that would enable them to make transactions anywhere in the world, even while at sea.

Japanese shipping firm Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK), along with local business group Transnational Diversified Group (TDG), looks to tap this market of over 200,000 Filipino seafarers through a QR (Quick Response) code-based app. This app, dubbed MarCoPay (Maritime Community Pay), system development started 2nd quarter of 2019 and as of this printing is in trial stages with 3 test vessels. In December, MarCoPay, Inc. was granted a license from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to operate as an e-money issuer (EMI).

To successfully execute a digital platform and highly secured payment system, MarCoPay tapped the expertise of Accenture to develop its system and Citibank as its reserved bank.

The MarCoPay app services will be available to all shipping companies and seafarers of any nationality starting May 1.

With this in mind, BusinessWorld sought out MarCoPay President Toshiaki Fujioka and Chief Operating Officer Areson Rhonar I. Cuevas, to discuss the electronic money service, how it started, and how Filipinos seafarers will benefit from it.