Close to 10 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) stands to benefit after Belgacom International Carrier Services (BICS) Tuesday forged an agreement with G-Xchange (GXI) to expand the latter’s services using BICS HomeSend Remittance Hub.

This means subscribers of any mobile operator connected to HomeSend can transfer money electronically via a cellular phone to a GCASH subscriber BICS is among the world’s top 5 wholesale voice carriers, servicing over 500 wireless, wireline and service providers through sales offices in Brussels , Bern , Dubai , Singapore and New York.

GXI, a fully-owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom, pioneered GCASH, a micro payment service which transforms a mobile phone into a virtual wallet.

The HomeSend service was created in partnership with eServGlobal, a provider of Smarter Transaction Management solutions covering over 50 countries and performing over 2.4 billion transactions per day.

The first interoperability tests between GCash, the fastest growing mobile wallet service in Asia, and HomeSend, BICS mobile centric hub for international remittances, have been successfully completed.

Three corridors will initially be launched in the coming weeks, namely between Belgium , UK and USA , and the Philippines , but will be extended towards other sending markets with large numbers of overseas Filipinos in the future.

Some 7.9 million Filipinos work in the USA. The U.K. has 777,000 OFWs while Belgium has 12,700.

“This is the next big achievement in the international remittance market,” says Frederic Schepens, EVP Strategic Business Development at Belgacom ICS. “This will open up the industry beyond proprietary networks and enable consumers to send or receive money securely, instantly and cost-effectively using their own mobile phones.”

“The affiliation of GCASH with BICS HomeSend platform allows us to expand our mobile remittance hub connections,” confirmed Rizza Maniego-Eala, GXI President. “We can ride on the global mobile remittance expansion of BICS, providing more money transfer channels for Filipinos living or working abroad.”