Part Three: Informal Loan Trap - Bombay 5-6 lending's effect on Micro-entrepreneurs in Tacloban City, Philippines

By IMTFI Researchers Rosalita M. Dula and Marilou P. Grego

This is the third and final post in a three-part series about the informal loan negotiation practices between ambulant vendors and a group known as "Bombay 5-6 lenders" in Tacloban City, Philippines. Dula and Grego describe the effects of these lending practices on the household and business activities of vendors who live and work on the edge of a precarious existence.

Businesses are put up to generate income. For some micro-scale entrepreneurs like the ambulant vendors, there is a starker purpose in engaging in their trade. For those who live a hand-to-mouth existence, their business is their bread and butter - maybe more.

Maria, 51 years old - Ambulant Vendor (Photo Credit: Rosalita M. Dula)

The results of our study indicated that most respondents borrow money for either educational or medical expenditures for the family. Moreover, the frequency of their loans are significantly related to poor health conditions of family members and lack of savings. Since household subsistence has higher precedence over repayment of loans, vendors rely heavily on daily income to sustain daily household needs and are always a day away from potential default. Once an ambulant vendor experiences default, there is a high possibility that a series of such defaults will be experienced. Because lack of income is the primary cause of default, defaults have a domino effect as daily income goes toward loan repayments in a circular course.

To have a debt is hard. To be caught in a cycle of debt is even harder. To be bound in a cyclical debt for a long period of time is beyond comparison. A person would normally feel ashamed if anyone knows that they are mired in debt. At the onset of this research study, we struggled to find prospective respondents because no one would ever admit to having a loan with a Bombay 5-6 lender. Realizing this, we re-phrased our question asking instead; “Do you know anyone among your fellow ambulant vendors who have existing loans from a Bombay 5-6 lender?” Amused by our question, one vendor referred us to another, who then referred us to another, until we found ourselves back with the first three (3) ambulant vendors we spoke with (who initially denied having such a loan). If only we knew then what those colorful beach umbrellas stood for.

Most of the respondents have children who are still attending school. Most are in secondary school and at college level. Education for them is very important, as is their health. Most of our respondents have lost some perception of the magnitude of the economic situation in which they are entrenched. But one remarkable thing we discerned from our respondents is their sense of responsibility to provide their children with a chance for a brighter future - one quite different from parents’ own current situation. Earning at a subsistence level from their businesses is challenging for heads of family who work to maintain the robust health of family members or confront financial challenges when one person in the household requires medical attention.

Focus Group Discussion with ambulant vendors (Photo Credit: Ericson D. Acebedo)

During our focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, one of our central questions was “Why Bombay 5-6?” We received a plethora of answers, of course, and as extensive as those documented in previous studies. In substantiating how accessible the Bombay 5-6 lenders are, one of our participants explained rhetorically: “If you have a sick family member and you don’t have money for their medication, would you approach formal financiers for a loan whence you’ll have to wait a month for the proceeds?” The answer would be the same when we asked why they go for a loan. It’s a matter of urgency, even survival.

We have heard many justifications from ambulant vendors about why they have messed up with Bombay 5-6 lenders. With this study, we were able to gain insight - from a financial perspective - on how these marginalized traders are operating their businesses. Though not exhaustive or comprehensive, our study provides an important overview of the economic system encompassing vendors and lenders. Referring to the segmented cycle illustrated above, money borrowing can commence at any point (household, Bombay 5-6, or business). This is due to the absence of savings that could serve as a buffer between the three entities involved. Since the scale is at a daily subsistence level, an active and ongoing spin is understandable.

In the long run, what was once considered disruptive becomes normal. This is one reason why most of our respondents showed no remorse over having a loan. Domingo Omoy, Sr. who has been an ambulant vendor for more than three (3) decades, said he cannot recall anymore a night where he had trouble sleeping because of a loan with a Bombay 5-6 lender. He reaffirmed that so long as the intention of taking on debt is for the welfare of his family, he will always find peace within himself and the determination to settle it. He admitted, though, that he does get a bit anxious whenever he fails to keep up with the repayment.

Today, Domingo has two children who have finished college and who now work as elementary school teachers. And yet, he still borrows money from Bombay 5-6 lenders. Three more kids to support, he said, but soon the two of them will be done with their college studies. When asked if he would be over with his Bombay 5-6 affair by that time, he replies that he certainly does not know for sure. But one thing he is sure of, he said, is that he will make it through.

An artist's depiction of Bombay 5-6 lending (Artist: Jakes)

The level of courage and endurance that Domingo and the rest of our respondents show is amazing. They have withstood the battle, but seem to have forgotten the urge to retire from their cyclic money borrowing activities. Some may already have achieved fleeting financial freedom on their own terms, but remain unaware that they are kept in a trap by deeply ingrained habits of making do.

Maria, 51 years old and an ambulant vendor in Tacloban city imparted to us: “For thirty years of peddling and thirty years of borrowing from Bombay, life is still the same. Constrained, striving, and impoverished - yet we still endure. I hope that assistance from the government can reach to those who are marginalized - like us.”

For earlier posts in this series, see part 1 here and part 2 here

Read their final report, Informal Loan Trap: Bombay 5-6 And Its Effect On Micro-Entrepreneurs In Tacloban City, Philippines, here 

Part Two: Up close with informal money lending - Loan Negotiation Practices between Bombay 5-6 lenders and Micro-entrepreneurs in Tacloban City, Philippines

By IMTFI Researchers Rosalita M. Dula and Marilou P. Grego

This is the second of a three-part series about the informal loan negotiation practices between ambulant vendors and a group known as "Bombay 5-6 lenders" in Tacloban City, Philippines. Dula and Grego describe the effects of these lending practices on the household and business activities of vendors who live and work on the edge of a precarious existence.

Tacloban City is the center for trade, commerce and culture in the Eastern Visayas Region of the Philippines. It has attracted both local and multinational franchises to invest in the city. At present, Tacloban City has a total of 43 financial establishments comprised of 15 bank companies and other formal financial institutions from government and private sectors. On the other end of the spectrum are the informal money lenders who are thriving in the area. The most interesting of these are the Bombay 5-6 lenders who, based on word-of-mouth, have been continuously operating and dominating this business for the longest period. A majority of their client base are those engaged in micro-scale businesses like those of the ambulant vendors.

Ambulant vendors' most popular food items (Photo Credit: Rosalita M. Dula)

Our study used purposive sampling to identify as respondents a total of 100 ambulant vendors who have existing loans from Bombay 5-6 lenders. The study looked into respondents’ socio-economic and business profile, the determining factors of preference that led ambulant vendors to strike a deal with Bombay 5-6 lenders in Tacloban city, and the loan negotiation practices of lenders and ambulant vendors.

Females comprised seventy-eight percent (78%) of all respondents. Lenders consider it to be easier to begin business relationships with female ambulant vendors than with male vendors (Sonny, Bombay 5-6 lender). Aside from the actual instances where it is mostly women who are left to oversee and operate the business, women are often highly approachable and can easily be pressured to re-pay debts. In contrast, their male counterparts are described by lenders as stubborn and not easily persuaded to repay. A Bombay 5-6 lender would typically lend money to a male ambulant vendor with quite a bit of hesitation. In addition, women - especially the wives of male vendors, are customarily the ones who manage financial matters in a Filipino household.

Forty-eight percent (48%) of the respondents depend solely on their entrepreneurial income, which averages to P10,001 – P15,000 per month, to cover all their business and household expenses – from food, to utilities and education, among others. Forty-one percent (41%) of the respondents are engaged in street food vending. Street foods are both budget-friendly and handy at the same time, making it very popular among Filipinos. On an ordinary day of hustle-bustle in the city streets, it is usual to see pedestrians stopping to grab some street food as they go about their day. Prices per serving seldom exceed twenty pesos (approximately USD 0.50). Banana cue, camote cue, fishballs, squid balls, hotdog on a stick, kwek-kwek and tokneneng, kikiam, sorbetes, peanuts, corn, batchoy, and barbeque are some of the street foods sold near schools, churches, plazas, and public transport terminals. Street food vending requires a small starting capital, and its appeal for ambulant vendors gets an added boost from its potential to realize a return on investment within a shorter period of time (Domingo Omoy, Sr.).

An aggregate of eighty percent (80%) of our respondents’ loans are taken out as capital for starting or maintaining their businesses. Forty-nine percent (49%) of respondents’ loan transactions were offered by a Bombay 5-6 lender. Instead of offering cash loans up front, Bombay 5-6 lenders will initially entice their client to purchase various goods to be paid for on an installment basis (Ligaya, ambulant vendor). Beach umbrellas, towels, and appliances are some of the first commonly recommended goods. It is even amusing to learn that beach umbrellas – aside from providing shade – also serve as an indicator among ambulant vendors of those who have messed up with Bombay 5-6 lenders.

On the very first transaction, Bombay 5-6 lenders do not directly mention the total cost of the merchandise they sell. They undermine clients’ prudence by blowing the small details out of proportion so that numerical figures appear to be clearly surmountable. A transaction amounting to PhP500.00 will be carried out as a good sold for only PhP25.00 per day in a 20-day period (Maricel, fruit vendor).

The virtually omnipresent beach umbrellas providing a silhouette
 for ambulant vendors (Photo Credit: Marilou P. Grego)

Trust and confidence built up through the debtor’s good payment standing becomes the basis for a Bombay 5-6 lender to eventually offer a cash loan. The sum offered depends on the value - inferred by the lender - of the merchandise on display. More volume and variety of merchandise suggests a larger amount is dispensable. A borrower’s background is not checked, hence also making the lender vulnerable to acts of deception. For instance, in an isolated incident, a person pretended to be one of the ambulant vendors by borrowing goods and merchandise from a friend, occupied a space in the open thoroughfares as if they were the owner, and was thus able to borrow money from a Bombay 5-6 lender. The following day, the perpetrator was nowhere to be found (Evelyn, ambulant vendor).

Loans are paid out daily for a nominal 45-60-day period. However, the loan duration may be shortened or extended depending on the capacity of the vendor to pay. Bombay 5-6 lenders conduct their daily collection routine during idle times in the afternoon when most, if not all of their clients have already accumulated money from sales. Bombay 5-6 lenders explained that they collect payment on a daily basis in order to check up on a client’s business status and to ensure that the latter will be repaying the loan in manageable amounts. For the ambulant vendors, this arrangement is preferable in order to circumvent the burden of paying the full amount all at once and reducing the likelihood of the amassed funds being misappropriated. Collection is sometimes undertaken by the lender alone or in groups. On rare occasions, a Bombay 5-6 lender is accompanied by a local in anticipation that this will guarantee them safety. In worst cases where a robbery can’t be averted, the local individual can help them identify the culprit. Sonny recalls incidents of robbery that have occurred over Bombay 5-6's twenty-five years of money lending operations in Tacloban city, but they reported none of these to authorities.

Seventy-eight percent (78%) of the respondents in our study reported some experiences of default in repayment. A majority (67%) of all such cases were attributed to lack of sales. To mitigate the consequences, most (83%) of the respondents who were in default pleaded for an extension, while others (10%) doubled their payment the next day. On the worst end of the arrangement are those in the remaining seven percent (7%), who secured yet another loan from another source or multiple sources in order to repay their loan to the Bombay 5-6 lender. Sonny explained that lenders grant extensions in order to regain the capital they lent to vendors. But for vendors without a good repayment standing, further loans will not be granted. Bombay 5-6 lenders do not take goods as payment. They only accept cash. In extreme cases where the vendor is at a great disadvantage and can’t keep up with repayments, lenders arbitrarily lower the interest rate to help clients liquidate their debts.

The hallmark of informal lending is a lack of fuss over documentation. Thus, keeping a record of payments is not much of an issue for either the ambulant vendors or the Bombay 5-6 lenders. Payment records may be written on a notebook or a piece of paper and kept by either the vendor or the lender in some cases, while others don’t record payments at all.

Bombay 5-6 lenders are the most preferred lenders according to the majority of the respondents in our study, based on the following attributes arranged in descending order: 1) no collateral, 2) no imprisonment, 3) no formal requirement needed, 4) easy and fast loan transaction, 5) fast cash, 6) Bombay 5-6 lenders are approachable 7) accessibility, 8) flexible mode of payment, and 9) they have no other choice. Many respondents prefer informal lenders even if the interest rate is high because the borrower’s transaction cost is minimal (Limpao-Osop, 1998*). Other than the interest rate, the borrower does not incur additional costs such as commissions, application/processing fees, other indirect charges, or transaction costs such as feasibility studies and financial statements, among others.


References
*Limpao-Osop, Arah D. (1998) "Case Study Informal (5-6) Money Lenders." Final Draft. November 23, 1998. Unpublished Report for Chemonics International Inc. Davao City, Mindanao, Philippines. Under contract No. 492-C-00-98-00008-00 USAID Office of Economic Development, Manila, Philippines. Pp. 1-21.

Stay tuned for Part Three and Final Report
For Part One, see here

Part One: In every economic crisis comes business opportunity - Bombay 5-6 lenders and the micro-entrepreneurs in Tacloban City, Philippines

By IMTFI Researchers Rosalita M. Dula and Marilou P. Grego

This is the first of a three-part series about the informal loan negotiation practices between ambulant vendors and a group known as "Bombay 5-6 lenders" in Tacloban City, Philippines. Dula and Grego describe the effects of these lending practices on the household and business activities of vendors who live and work on the edge of a precarious existence.

October 15th: a sunny day in Tacloban City, Philippines, and yet another busy day for Domingo Omoy Sr., 63 years old, and his 59-year-old wife, Paula. They have 3 children to feed and send to school. They’re one of the families that have worked as ambulant vendors, rolling their business on the streets of the city, for more than three decades.

A female ambulant vendor in the busy streets of a public market area,
Tacloban City, Philippines (Photo credit: Rosalita M. Dula)

Early this morning, Domingo went to the public market to buy the necessary supplies for their food vending business; afterwards, he and his wife began preparing various food stuffs. At around 8am, Domingo pushed a cart containing their merchandise to a nearby school where they set up before the class break. Around 3pm, a guy on a motorbike wearing a checkered long-sleeved polo shirt approached the vending couple. The guy’s look and physique did not resemble that of locals, but the guy and Domingo exchanged pleasantries in the local dialect, to no one’s surprise. While engaged in their brief conversation, Domingo handed over a tiny notebook and some cash to him. After scribbling something, the guy on the motorbike handed back the notebook to the old man. Everything went smoothly, as if their moves were well-rehearsed and expected. In a jiffy the guy and his motorbike vanished. Classes ended around 5pm. Domingo then pushed the cart back home, concluding a routine day of business.

Domingo is a native of Tacloban City, the regional center for education and trade of Eastern Visayas, Philippines. It is comprised of 138 barangays (villages) and a population of 242,000 based on a 2015 census by the Philippine Statistics Authority. It gained global publicity and attention after being massively hit by super typhoon Yolanda (internationally known as Haiyan) on November 8, 2013. Based on the severity of damage it was deduced that the city was the typhoon’s ground zero. Fortunately, not long after Haiyan’s devastation, prominent local and multi-national franchises have either opened or reopened their businesses in the city, allowing for a rapid bounce-back of the local economy.

Commensurate to the escalation of big corporations’ is the economic activities and contributions of micro entrepreneurs, specifically the ambulant vendors. Domingo and those belonging to this micro-enterprise sector who sell their merchandise in the open thoroughfares of the city, commonly live in a hand-to-mouth existence. Unable to buy or rent a stall, they market their goods along sidewalks, by transport terminals, in front of the market, or near public or private establishments. They are peddling goods such as street foods, fruits and vegetables, condiments, accessories, and they render services like shoe and cellphone repairs. Meanwhile, considering the nature of business and being known to have an income generally below subsistence level, ambulant vendors are not compelled by the Bureau of Internal Revenue to pay income tax returns. This somehow adds an appeal to ambulant trading as a viable prospect for those who want to start their foray into a micro-business venture with very minimal capitalization and low tax overhead. Ambulant vending is a boon to those on tight budget that demand easily accessible goods and/or services at a very affordable cost. A serving of banana cue, for instance, would only cost approximately $0.2 from an ambulant vendor compared to $0.3 at canteens or food stalls.

Most of the ambulant vendors rely on their daily business income to sustain their daily household needs. In lean seasons, when income hits rock bottom, a lack of savings spells doom for the family and business. It is during these vulnerable times when most of the micro-scale entrepreneurs like ambulant vendors would seek the help of institutions engaged in money lending to keep their business afloat. Unfortunately, with very little to no access to formal financing and the absence of property that could serve as loan collateral, these distressed traders eagerly grab hold of informal money lenders’ helping hands.

A Bombay 5-6 lender scurrying off after collection of payments from ambulant
vendors in the downtown area (Photo credit: Marilou P. Grego)

The prevalent practice of informal money lending in Tacloban City, and probably most other cities in the Philippines, is dominated by the “Bombay 5-6” money lenders. The term “5-6” is based on the two lowest numerical figures to clearly represent the nominal 20 percent interest rate. Hence, a person who borrows 5 pesos will have to repay 6 pesos over an agreed period of time (Kondo, 2003)*. Bombay 5-6 is a group of enterprising Indian nationals who have been covertly operating their informal money lending business in the Philippines for a long time. According to Sonny, a Bombay 5-6 lender, their family and relatives have been operating in Tacloban City for almost two and a half decades. Their business operation has been bequeathed from one generation to the next. The considerably high interest rate cleverly imposed on smaller amounts enables them to offer attractive loan deals to locals, and get the returns in two-month’s time or even less. Their clients are mostly micro-scale business entrepreneurs.

Bombay 5-6 lenders’ long-term presence in the area has paved the way for them to make friends with the locals, learn their language, adopt their culture, and engage in business with them. In turn, members of the group were able to create a persona, gain the trust of locals and attract them to borrowing money from them. As with many informal money lending practices, obtaining a loan from Bombay 5-6 is plain and straightforward with the absence of paperwork and required documents superficially sweetening the deal.

Domingo is amongst those who depend heavily on Bombay 5-6 lenders for business’ and even household’s financial needs. For him, even at its paramount, the interest rate fades into oblivion when he is glaring at the absence of means for survival. He is one of those who has stuck around and continued to push his business even beyond the silver-year milestone of peddling. He was able to go the distance because of his perseverance in bringing his trade close to those who needed it. Domingo and his family may be one of the few who deserve to be admired for exhibiting a vibrant picture of resiliency. Yet on the other side of this resiliency is his daily business visitor, the guy on the motorbike wearing his checkered polo shirt and rocking his motorbike across the distance, booting obstacles along the way to bring Domingo a link for the chain that holds their mutual existence on a continuum.

References
*Kondo, Marie. October 2003. “Bombay 5-6”: Last Resource Informal Financiers for Philippine Micro-Enterprises.”Issue 4. Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia. Retrieved from http://kyotoreview.org/issue-4/the-bombay-5-6-last-resource-informal-financiers-for-philippine-micro-enterprises/

See here for Part Two.

Is the Rural Hometown a Worthwhile Investment?

by ALVIN P. ANG and JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO

This post is the second in a 2-part blog post series. For part one, see here.

The rural hometown is where all human mobility begins. In the case of developing countries, poverty, fewer job opportunities, and limited business activity hound rural development. It is thus not surprising that migration — be it to the cities, to the more gainful towns, or to overseas countries — pulls people to go elsewhere. Place becomes a livelihood and unfortunately rural birthplaces become less attractive, even to their own residents. But since not all can move, kith and kin stay at home, in their rural hometowns. The person moving, for his or her part, forges an economic relationship with their families through domestic and international remittances. 

Compared to non-migrant households, these kinds of households can be financially fortunate. These remittances can even contribute to local economic activity by enticing demand for more goods and services. Moneyed households, especially those with surplus incomes, can start businesses — or even invest in local property, in the products of local financial institutions, and other opportunities available locally. So remittances come to be an economic lifeline for rural areas. Remittances become a type of financing rooted in people and institutions that have links with origin communities of the migrants. Given that remittance incomes flow into rural areas, a crucial question that emerges is related to how rural communities could maximize the benefit of these remittances? For this, it is necessary to identify the local conditions that can stimulate the fruitful use of remittances. It may also be important to assess if moneyed income-earners like overseas migrants are financially capable of investing.

This is the case for the Philippines, a major origin country of overseas migrants who are scattered worldwide. Here, a group of researchers has been implementing a project that goes by the acronym RICART: Remittance Investment Climate Analysis in Rural Hometowns. Ricart sought to find out if overseas migrants and their families find wisdom in parking their money in the place —the rural hometown — they are familiar with. Even the way the rural hometown is governed, as well as the place’s socio-economic and investment-related conditions, was examined. Four municipalities have been studied over the last four years. The latest one is in Guiguinto in Bulacan, an hour’s ride away from Manila and a hub for manufacturers. Guiguinto is a progressive local community, economically.

Guiguinto is first-class in terms of income, and in securing business permits is perhaps the quickest in Bulacan. Registered businesses in Guiguinto are some P9.343 billion big in terms of resources. Local productivity, estimated at P1.235 million per worker, is high in Guiguinto. This is not to mention that Guiguinto has an estimated 3,959 overseas Filipinos sending incomes to loved ones back there, supplementing local incomes. Guiguinto’s economic lure has been a catch basin for 44 branches of financial institutions found in the community along with shopping centers. These institutions are accessible to local residents. 

So do overseas Guiguinteños find their community worthy to invest in? Ricart’s survey there (n=229 respondents who are overseas migrants and migrant and non-migrant households) found that only 30 percent of overseas remitters and 43 percent of overseas migrant families invest in Guiguinto. About 33 percent of remitters and 40 percent of migrant families have businesses in Guiguinto. And 44 percent of remitters and 26 percent of migrant households hold savings accounts.

These results can be surprising to observers. Why are many of these moneyed people not investing? One reason could be attributed to limited levels of financial literacy. The same Ricart survey for Guiguinto found that the three respondent-groups claim they do not need assistance in handling money, and have “good” levels of knowledge and skills on handling money. But when asked about three basic concepts surrounding finance — interest, inflation and loans — less than eighty percent of respondents gave correct answers to the survey’s questions. However, this does not mean respondents’ reasons for not investing in their rural hometown are suspect. Migrant households’ heads were asked in a focus group discussion what governs their decisions to invest in their own rural backyard. Their answers can be visualized like a magnifying glass, so a Magnifying Glass of Rural Investing Assessment was developed (see diagram). From the perspective of the person making the investment decision, in this case the remittance-receiving household, their assessment can be likened to holding a magnifying glass, inspecting personal, familial, environmental and institutional developments before saying yes to rural hometown investing.

The magnifying glass of rural investing assessment

(in Alvin Ang and Jeremaiah Opiniano, 2016)

The person trying to decide looks at his or her experiences as well as personal disposition toward saving and investing. The family also plays a role in the investment decision, with the household’s current financial condition being an important factor. Family members also assess present and future needs while weighing daily needs against short-to-long-term prospects. If we zoom out to the immediate geographical environment of Guiguinto. Visible economic progress is both good news and yet also a matter of concern given that moneyed people may then become prey for scammers. Peaceful and orderly local conditions may encourage the desire to invest in the hometown.

Finally, there is the assessment of the available financial institutions. While interviewees are concerned with the litany of requirements necessary to avail of a financial product, the financial institution’s stability is also a primary consideration. Previous as well as ongoing episodes of scams are reasons for such careful assessment. Some financial institutions operating in Guiguinto were also asked about overseas town mates’ financial behavior. There is concern about how incomes are predictably used for more consumption. But some overseas Guiguinteños save and even avail of housing loans. Some migrant town mates are also concerned about the accessibility of the financial institution, signaling the need to receive the overseas remittance quickly.

This Magnifying Glass of Rural Investing Assessment may reveal differing perspectives and attitudes on the part of prospective rural hometown investors like overseas migrants. There may be those who are attuned to risk-taking or those who are risk-averse. Despite the variations, financial literacy initiatives are an important development agenda, more so for the rural community. If a rural economy that is progressing wants to sustain the gains of such growth and benefit more from overseas remittances, capacity building through local financial literacy programs may well be the perfect complement.

For rural localities like Guiguinto, overseas and even domestic remittances signal the need to address a policy gap: how can these remittances be maximized for local development? Localities also have their own contexts to consider when remittances are to be channelled to productive purposes (in the case of Guiguinto, there’s industrialization and a declining role for agriculture, although gardening is a culturally-rooted entrepreneurial venture that still clicks locally). For its part, the local government has instituted many reforms over the past decade to make Guiguinto’s business climate friendly to investors and entrepreneurs.

Lessons from this migration-and-development story of Guiguinto have informed a Philippine local competitiveness agendum. Regardless of who sits in power nationally and locally, harnessing remittances for rural development will require political will and strategic interventions so that resources like remittances naturally go to productive economic activities found locally. Improving the business climate is a necessary precondition to overseas remittances development potential. It may help that financial institutions properly inform their clients locally of the many savings, investment and entrepreneurial options available to them.

In the end, if rural residents are more financially literate and capable, and if local officials offer programs and policy-making that account for the needs of local investors, moneyed rural residents like overseas migrants could be encouraged to make their rural hometown the natural choice for investing.

***

This piece is an outcome of the research project "Overseas remittances, hometown investing and financial inclusion: A remittance investment climate (ReIC) study in a rural hometown." This project was conducted by the non-profit Institute for Migration and Development Issues (IMDI) and supported by the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI) of the University of California-Irvine. Read their final report here.

Read Dr. Ang's recent commentary on financial literacy and financial inclusion in the Philippines here.

Dr. Alvin Ang is professor of Economics at the Ateneo de Manila University.

Jeremaiah Opiniano is the IMDI executive director and an assistant professor of Journalism at the University of Santo Tomas. For comments: ofw_philanthropy@yahoo.com.

"M-money as Conduit for Conditional Cash Transfers in the Philippines" in ITID Special Issue

Erwin A. Alampay and Charlie Cabotaje have a new article, "M-money as Conduit for Conditional Cash Transfers in the Philippines", published in Information Technologies & International Development (ITID)'s Summer 2016 Special Issue CPRsouth.  

This special issue CPRsouth (Communication Policy Research South) — guest-edited by Alison Gillwald — features articles that examine challenges facing ICTs in a range of countries in the Global South from diverse perspectives. In the context of the Global South, and Africa in particular, although prepaid mobile communications services have largely driven connectivity, public-interest research in areas of ICT policy has so far been limited and the simple transposition of “best practice” from the Northern hemisphere have often failed to procure desired outcomes. The collection of articles in this special issue examine how the deployment of new services, apps, improved methodologies, or governance frameworks could contribute to more inclusive, locally appropriate and effective regulation that enhance well-being, livelihoods, democracy, and economic participation. Following the theme of the CPRsouth 2014 Conference on What works, why and how do we know?, the articles seek to understand how governments and enterprises, particularly in developing countries, can effectively use ICTs to meet broader socioeconomic objectives and poverty-reduction strategies. The entire collection of articles published on June 10, 2016 is accessible at http://itidjournal.org.

Of special interest in the issue is the article by Erwin A. Alampay and Charlie Cabotaje, based on their research funded by IMTFI:

"M-money as Conduit for Conditional Cash Transfers in the Philippines", Information Technologies & International Development [Special Issue], 12(2), pp. 1-12. 

Article Abstract

Many developing countries provide conditional cash transfers (CCTs) for their poorest families. In the Philippines, CCT use has expanded rapidly such that in five years the amount of transfers increased by 3,300%, with PHP34 billion (US$801 million) disbursed in 2013. This expansion of deliveries has complicated government logistics. In an effort to reach the poor in all areas of the country, the government partnered with the telecommunication firm Globe’s network of GCash merchants to provide direct cash payouts to CCT beneficiaries. This article investigates the CCT implementation through the cash-based GCash Remit system to determine its effectiveness, efficiency, and security. A cost comparison was done between the GCash Remit mode of CCT delivery and the potential use of noncash mobile money (m-money) platforms already in the market. The study is based on field observations, a randomized survey of 194 CCT beneficiaries, interviews with CCT program implementers and m-money providers, and scrutiny of the tariff data of m-money providers.The full article can be accessed here.

Dissemination Event 
Erwin A. Alampay and Charlie Cabotaje disseminated findings of their study at the event held last week: "mBOP: The Impact of Mobile Financial Services in the bottom of the pyramid" (June 17, 2016). The event brought together cash transfer agencies, NGOs and other stakeholders including banking associations, USAID, Oxfam, Save the Children, and DSWD, Land Bank. Another successful example of researchers influencing policy, congratulations!

Photo credit: Charlie E. Cabotaje

Read more about Alampay and Cabotaje's IMTFI research here. And check out their IMTFI research-related blogposts:

"Use of m-money for conditional cash transfers in the Philippines: (part 1 of 3)"

"Conditional Cash Transfers in the Philippines (part 2 of 3)"
"Leveraging conditional cash transfers to develop local mobile money ecosystems (part 3 of 3)"

Economies of Scale: Session Five of the 2016 Conference

In the second panel of the day "Small Size Big Impact? Management of Financial Opportunities and Constraints by Micro-entrepreneurs and Small Merchants" with discussant Olumide Abimbola, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology focused on the so-called "SME" sector with a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises and led off with "Influence of Mobile Money on Control of Productive Resources Among Women Micro Entrepreneurs Participating in Table Banking - Nakuru, Kenya" by Milcah Wavinya Mulu-Mutuku and Castro Ngumbu Gichuki of Egerton University. Mutuku discussed Kenya's Vision 2030 and how the aim is to transform Kenya economic, social, and political pillars. The research team decided to focus their study on the "social pillar," with an emphasis on the reduction of gender disparities and boosting of access to control around productive resources for women. They narrowed in on the business of "table banking," where money is put on the table and people borrow from the pool of currency, a practice that has even received presidential endorsement. As illustrated in the photograph above, audience members were encouraged to look at the entire assemblage of materials on the crowded table and to notice differences between documents, such as the differentiation of light blue passbooks from beige ones, which might indicate two different types of transactions. Researchers also visited Safari.com mobile money services.

The methodology was characterized by three stages of data collection 1) questionnaire (data collected; analysis on-going), 2). focus group discussion (May, 2016), and 3) in-depth interviews (June & July, 2016). The culminating event would be a results dissemination workshop on September 2016. In surveying informants, they discovered that the issue was "not that they don't know about competing companies like Airtel," but getting accustomed "to a particular service for business." They also discussed how not all Safari.com services remained popular, because "they stopped using Lipa Na M-PESA," because the convenience of till numbers was offset by unanticipated service charges."

Although their intention was to study women's groups, they discovered significant levels of participation by men in the groups. For example the Peniel Young Women Group had a male treasurer and secretary and a 13-10 gender ratio, The Faith Women Group also had a male treasurer, Hosea, who introduced new ideas to the group, such as acquiring land. The benefits of being in these groups could be amplified by technology as well as gender diversity, so that table banking + mobile money might lead to a "transformation of life, as in the case of one of their subjects, Mary, who now encourages customers to use normal person-to-person money transfers. She wants customers to pay using mobile money and then transfers funds to her bank account, which makes her more able to important her goods from Uganda. With table banking and mobile money, her wealth has grown from 2 dollars to 700 dollars. According to researchers "when men are added," there might be "even higher benefits." So they asked, in focusing on empowering women alone, "are we missing something?" As Hosea exclaims in the end of their presentation, "women's eyes were open long ago, and the men's eyes are still closed."

"Informal Loan Trap: Bombay 5-6 and its Effect on Tacloban Micro-entrepreneurs" by Rosalita M. Dula and Marilou Pelenio Grego of Eastern Visayas State University looks at loans and informal arrangements in the Philippines. Tacloban city is a regional capital that was recently devastated by a typhoon, Local lore attributes the presence of Indians to conscripts who jumped ship during the British occupation of earlier centuries. Today the "Bombay 5-6" wear distinctive checked shirts and zip through the city on motorbikes, which allow them to pass through alleys, escape ambushes, and not stay in the areas for too long as "walking cash dispensers." The micro-entrepreneurs who serve as their client base may sell fruit, root crops, street foods, and other products and services such as watch repair. As ambulant vendors, they need capital to set up for the next day Dula cited prior work on the group in studies of informal financial survival in business by Mari Kondo.

Grego explained the methodology of the study. She also narrated accounts of interpersonal dynamics, which might include pleading and negotiating the issue of default (which might be more common with formal bank loans despite their low interest). With these informal loan operators, women can easily begin a relationship. In contrast, with banks they feel the problem "of starting a business with only a dollar." Dula and Grego lauded these entrepreneurs for being highly innovative, although profit was often used in household expenses rather than business growth or expansion. Money lenders reach out to ambulant vendors and keep books very informally, so that "a piece of a notebook and a whole lot of trust" constitute the basic elements of the exchange.

The final panel of the session was "Assessing Unmet Needs of Small Merchants in Adopting Digital Payment Systems in Southern Ghana" by Clement Adamba of the University of Ghana, who began by crediting Onallia Esther Osei and Rebecca Sarku for their dedication to the project. Unfortunately these members were unable to get visas to the IMTFI conference, despite their important contributions to the study that comprised home-based enterprises, roadside businesses, and work conducted in the back of shops. They focused on 1) 30 respondents who were SMEs on Osu Oxford Street, 2) 90 respondents from Makola, one of the oldest markets in Accra, which is dominated by imported foods, 3) 30 respondents from old Accra in Ga Mashie, the former capital of colonial government, and 4) 50 respondents from a rural district, the Adawso Roadside Market. Each site also included at least one FGD and one IDI. Most respondents were women, with a gender ration of 154 to 46. 28% of respondents had used digital payment platforms, but 8.9 % had dropped out, and 25% were currently using. Factors included 1) illiteracy and ignorance, 2) poor communication networks characterized by waiting ("we cannot afford to go and wait for two hours"), 3) security and lack of trust, 4) language barriers that might be exacerbated by lack of transport, and 5) the fact that holding cash has more power than holding a card or invisible wealth on a phone. This show of cash was strongly linked to self-esteem. Respondents explained that "we want to count our money after a day's work". They look forward to ongoing fieldwork.

In the lively question and answer session, a variety of innovative research questions were discussed, from deploying mystery shoppers to potentially going into business themselves to move toward more participation and less removed observation. There was also considerable debate about the dynamics of interest rates as incentives or disincentives of pursuing particular credit strategies.

Alumni Session Panel of the 2016 Conference

The final panel of the first day not only focused on long-term work done by returning IMTFI scholars but also emphasized the ways that multiple approaches and methodologies may involve creating media or technologies other than money itself.  These forms of creative production often entail implementing a variety of design decisions and user testing scenarios for these novel instruments.  (Recently IMTFI has made its own Consumer Finance Methods Research Toolkit available online, as well as an explanatory document IMTFI Trust and Money: It's Complicated, so the researcher as product designer is a paradigm that they model actively.)  Although at the end of the day IMTFI head Maurer was joking about scenarios in which "a journalist, an anthropologist, and an economist go into a bar," the interdisciplinary benefits of multiple rounds of IMTFI funding and the cross-training of research cohorts has been no laughing matter.

"IMTFI's X Factor: Applying and Translating Innovative Research" was introduced by longtime social computing researcher Scott Mainwaring, who has been with IMTFI from the beginning and facilitated by discussant Divine Fuh of the University of Cape Town.  The session started with "How Research Can Make a Difference Locally: The Case of Overseas Remittances in the Philippines" by Jeremaiah Opiniano who -- self-deprecating comments abut his background as a journalist aside -- detailed the history of three rounds of funding for the RICART (Remittance Investment Climate Analysis in Rural Hometowns) tool, which analyzes "where overseas Filipinos from rural hometowns can best invest their money."

As Opiniano pointed out, regulations intended to inhibit money-laundering could negatively impact vulnerable countries, which he saw already affecting remittances.  He explained how researchers focused on rural areas because "that is where most of the overseas migrants come from."  He lauded the value of working with an economist so that quantitative and qualitative methods.  He explained how his tool repurposed a World Bank survey but how being physically present in the study site was critical in order to understand practices of community engagement.  Currently the group is working in Guiguinto, and he showed several ways that community members were interacting in public events. For example, he discussed how members of Family Circle were "trying to discover themselves" as participants. He praised an approach that emphasizes phenomenography, which maintains an empirical orientation but deeply engages with questions of human experience by focusing on differences in different people's experiences and thus looking at the locality's remittance investment climate with individual descriptions of personal understanding.

He acknowledged that his continuing study has faced several challenges, including the reluctance of participants, the closure of banks, and obstacles to keeping up with demands for regulation,  Moreover, "some of them are friendly, and some of them are not."  He affirmed the value of working with an economist "to connect the dots" by putting data sets together and tracking regressions, which depends on moving from a QUAN-qual to a QUAN-QUALbalance that incorporates how levels of socio-economic development differ by using a competitiveness index.  (For more about toolkits, you can check out this World Bank Trade Competitiveness Index.)  His presentation was deeply grounded in pragmatic engagements, from considering how the cost of electricity and cost of the services of financial systems might be ranked to planning incentives such as raffle prizes or groceries for participants.  He looks forward to sharing views on his findings as the conference proceeds.

"Translating Research into Product Design:  Interactive and Innovative Financial Education Modules to Improve the Financial Behavior of Targeted Populations in India" by Deepti KC opened with a fundamental question: "do we really know the financial lives of women?" She described how she designed a study that followed the financial lives of 25 women, which used "some promotional materials and financial literacy tools", but primarily focused on changing the mode of interaction from talking to listening.  In this study she found that all of the women appeared to have separate sources of income and were hiding money, mostly in the kitchen, often from husbands.  Although the women's lives might include the disruptions of banknotes eaten by vermin and domestic violence catalyzed by discovery of money caches, she wanted her work to honor their ingenuity and resourcefulness.  In explaining the lack of pursuit of being banked among women, she noted that banks might not accept their small savings or be perceived of as threatening and stigmatizing.  Furthermore, she identified a prevalent bias that ATMs and other uses of technology were for men, which was compounded by a fear of ridicule.  She prioritized using real life stories, because she didn't want to be too preachy.  By providing a meaningful "frame of reference," financial literacy educators treated the materials as prompts for discussion rather than solely didactic.

In considering questions about if financial literacy was enough, she cited an influential study done in Kenya with lockboxes. (Those who would like to consult this research by economists Pascaline Dupas and Jonathan Robinson can read their seminal article "Why Don't the Poor Save More?")  Based on this previous work, she decided to design a simple lockbox and key.   Significant findings concerned how many saving goals were related to a child and how 73% reported discussing household expenses with family after experiencing the interventions.  She noted how this phenomenon could increase with group dynamics and how financial education was enhanced if the educator was a female authority figure that they desired to emulate.  She advocated for having financial inclusion researchers "spend time with women in the field for a long time," because their desires might be "different from what we think they need." In the question and answer session, she also differentiated between "knowledge" and "trust."  Check out this in-depth profile of Deepti K.C., which includes a full interview and an account of a day-long visit to one of her field sites in Bihar.

"Juggling Currencies in Transborder Contexts: Mexico/US" by Magdalena Villareal explained how "video became part of the research."  She asserted the value of comparative work and human factors, since money doesn't travel by itself.  She argued for valuing "social currencies" and "symbolic currency" alongside economic currencies and observed that "one national currency" operates differently in different contexts, as it is "embedded in social scenarios."  In commenting on the rancorous campaign environment debating about the contributions (or costs) of immigrants from Mexico, she reminded audience members that "money often comes back to the United States," because of remittance loops.  As an example, she pointed to the case study of her field site in which there were "constant interactions with Hawaii, even in mountainous regions in Mexico" which extended "to the level of how many chickens are counted" in a day or adoption of foods like pasta with mushrooms.  For researchers, according to Villareal, the challenge is to capture how "flows are not registered" and "uncover the nature of money."  As a producer of media, she also included her subjects in the process by "showing the people part of the footage and having peoples' responses to the footage."

Saving for a rainy day – in alternative ways: part 1

Research by IMTFI fellow Janet Arnado featured in The Guardian Visa Partner Zone

Filipino pesos like these are likely to be stored in unusual places around a home or invested in community festivals and family celebrations. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters

"According to the World Bank Global Findex database, while most adults save money, few use a bank or other formal institution to do so. This two-part report looks alternate savings methods – using unusual hiding places or recirculating funds within the community.

Can you gather $2500 in the next month for an emergency? If so, how would you finance it? Researchers at Gallup and the World Bank posed this question to about 150,000 adults in more than 140 countries as part of the 2014 World Bank Global Findex database – and found intriguing results.

Leora Klapper, lead economist at the Development Research Group, World Bank, says that three-quarters of those surveyed said they could come up with money, a higher number than she expected. And more than 30%, even those who squirrel away funds without formal bank accounts, said they’d use their savings to come up with the cash...

IMTFI fellow Janet Arnado, a Philippines-based sociologist with the Research Institute for Gender and Women Inc, found that because poor Filipino women living in the hinterland are far from a town and without transportation, few of them have bank accounts. 'So,' Arnado notes, 'they store coins in visible places like Coca-Cola bottles or short bamboo poles. They conceal more lucrative bills in clothing and pillows. They creatively protect their money in order to deceive thieves as well as their husbands while increasing their bargaining power within the household.'"

The piece also notes IMTFI's involvement in research where "women and men who lack access to formal banking channels frequently develop savings methods that work within their communities, even if financial experts view them as risky."


Mary Janet Arnado, PhD  is the founding president and CEO of Research Institute for Gender and Women, Inc. In 2010 as a research fellow at IMTFI she undertook her research titled, "Gender and Money: Case Studies from Philippine Indigenous Communities." Find more about her work and the project here.

Stay tuned for more featured IMTFI research in part 2, coming this week!

Getting to Cagnipa: Field Notes from the Bicol Region, Philippines

By Federico Jose T. Lagdameo (working with Bernadette Gavino Gumba)

Google Maps declared that the barangay we were headed to was just 14 minutes away from where we hit the shore. As I announced this to the team we all had a good laugh. There was definitely no traffic in this area, but to say that we would get to Barangay Cagnipa in 14 minutes was to presume we were going there by helicopter! We weren’t. We were going there on foot.

Cagnipa is one of the more remote barangays of Garchitorena, a poor fourth class municipality of the province of Camarines Sur in the Philippines. The barangay or village is among the poorest in the district. Cagnipa is located in an island where there are no means of public transportation by land. People walked. They climbed up and down the hills and then they walked some more.

Like many other villages in Garchitorena’s islands, Cagnipa relies on what the sea provides. People fish when they can, and when they cannot due to the easterly winds, they turn to agriculture. Or they leave the village and seek work elsewhere as carpenters, construction workers, house helpers, bakers, store helpers, or whatever employment their limited education and skill-set can fetch them.

Our guide to Cagnipa offered us two choices: we could either climb and cross the steeper side of two eastern hills that separated Cagnipa from Burabod, the barangay on which we docked; or we could trudge along a roundabout path that would take us through the seaside mangroves of the island (a muddy forest at that time of the year), and then up the promontory of a hill west of Cagnipa. We chose the latter, deciding that the sights were better on this route.

The route we took was also the one that most of Cagnipa’s children took when they went to school at Burabod. The one-hour trek tested our endurance. We learned that that many of the school children had to quit school because it was so tough to make it everyday. They then become like their parents: poorly educated, shackled to poverty and at the mercy of the sea’s caprice.

We were asked by our guide why were we headed to Cagnipa. We answered that we were part of a research team surveying the town of Garchitorena for interviewing its fishing households about their usage of mobile money transfer and storage, or what was locally called “SMART Padala.” We said we were trying to find out how many made use of the technology, what problems they encountered while using it, and what was their general assessment of it. Our guide nodded at this, saying that his cousin at Cagnipa was actually one of the only two mobile money transfer providers there and that the villagers found the service convenient in sending and receiving money.

Indeed, not only in Cagnipa but in all the barangays we had surveyed, the consensus has been that “SMART Padala” was a more efficient and cost-effective way of sending and receiving money from loved ones and kin. People found its process to have been convenient and fast, and relatively inexpensive. When sending money, the senders inform the service provider of the SMART Padala number of the service provider from whom the recipient would claim the money. In addition, they inform the service provider of the amount they wish to send as well as the name and mobile number of the recipient. They hand the amount they are sending—together with the transaction fee—to the service provider who then secures the transaction. Once successful, the service provider then sends an SMS message to those who had sent the money, informing them of the confirmation and reference numbers. The receiver also receives an SMS with a reference and confirmation number. Once these are affirmed, the recipients are handed the amount sent after the small transaction fee has been deducted.

The process, however, was not without its problems. Since mobile money transfers make use of mobile network connections, their reliability and success is contingent on these connections remaining stable, uninterrupted and available. This requirement is made painfully acute during periods of calamities such as typhoons when power and network lines are down and people in the islands need to receive cash support from family members, friends, and relatives. The  remote location of the barangays make it difficult for their residents to secure constant network connection for their phones. This problem gets accentuated due to the insufficient number of mobile phone sites or stations that broadcast the network signal or connection.

Having arrived at Cagnipa after more than an hour’s trek from Burabod, we immediately proceeded to undertake the survey-interviews of 20 fishing households, even as the thought of the return trip weighed heavily on our heads. We split the barangay to four areas, dividing them up between each of us so as to cover more ground efficiently.

Most of the men were out in the fields. Those we were able to talk to informed us that some were harvesting coconuts while others were planting crops. Others were preoccupied with bets-free cockfighting. Still some were in Naga City and Manila, working as construction laborers. It emerged that as the easterly winds prevented the fishermen from going out to sea, the meager income opportunities in the village and in the town had to be supplemented with work elsewhere. We learnt through the interviews that those who left in search of work sent money back to their families whenever they could. And those they had left behind found the process of receiving money from husbands and children abroad much easier and faster with the mobile money transfer technology. As one respondent put it, “It’s as if they were here, handing to us the money for food and our children’s education.”

In retrospect, our research yielded five major findings regarding the usage of mobile money transfer and storage technology by Garchitorena fishing households: 1) The higher the educational level of fishing household heads, the greater the amount of money they had sent; 2) The higher the household income, the greater the amount of money sent to these households; 3) The higher the educational level of fishing household heads, the greater the amount of money received by these households; 4) The bigger the size of the fishing household, the greater the amount of money received by the household; and 5) The higher the household expense, the greater the amount of money received by the household.

It was interesting to note that while higher levels of educational qualifications appeared to have a positive influence on the usage of this technology, lower educational levels of household heads did not seem to limit the its use. This could imply that lower level of education was not a contributing factor to fishing household heads’ use of mobile money transfer services.

By the end of the day, we completed our interviews and plodded back to Burabod to our boat and a rendezvous with the other survey team members. Cagnipa continued to linger in our thoughts. In this very remote area, where many lives are dire and destitute, life flowed on. Separated by the vast expanse of sea and land, families at Cagnipa find themselves comforted by the thought that during the time of financial need they could easily send a relative or a loved one an SMS message seeking for help. And this help could arrive just minutes away.

See the final report, "Storing and Transferring Money in Cash-Strapped Fishing Municipality in the Bicol Region"