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Direct payment boost for local freelancers, remote workers

| Updated: June 23, 2018 22:00:02


Direct payment boost for local freelancers, remote workers

Bangladesh is slowly establishing itself as a powerhouse in the digital skills market, a detail evident through a growing number of small software firms and expert professionals who work for a global clientele. Unlike few years ago, when people mostly worked on freelancing platforms, there are now remote workers, consultants and experts offering services directly to their clients.

The concept of home office isn't anymore confined to data entry workers as a lot of organisations hire employees directly putting them on payroll without having any office in Bangladesh. One challenge majority of these people face is of payments i.e., receiving money from a client, business partner or an organisation they work for.

Remote workers use loosely regulated virtual wallets and sometimes rely on costly bank wires. Many freelancers who get to deal with the payment issue every month say often their experience is not good. Receiving payment for one's hard work should not be a sore experience. It should rather be the opposite - instantaneous, secure and smooth. But in reality, it can be a hard bargain. A large number of Bangladeshi freelancers, digital professionals, small and medium level information technology (IT) firms who serve international clients know this well.

Cross-border payment is often a challenging affair and is strictly regulated. People who receive payments through different wallets and banking channels often face a time-consuming, tedious and costly option. For instance, a recipient in Dhaka requires to go through tedious documentation process at the bank for every transaction while receiving international payment through a bank-wire. Many users despise to go through such a process.

The point, however, is that it could have been easier, smoother and most importantly, direct. This is where a cross-border payments platform called 'Transpay' comes in. It offers the world's largest, independent, direct-to-bank payment network in over 120 countries and it is said that 'Transpay' has a better solution to problem(s) associated with such payment challenge. The service provider has introduced a new feature called Transpay Direct that enables freelancers, remote workers and IT entrepreneurs to receive payment directly to their banks in local currency.

A section of Bangladeshi freelancers nowadays rely on the Transpay service to receive payment from freelancing platforms like Upwork, Microworkers and they will now be able to receive payment out of these platforms as well.

SOLVING PAYMENT PROBLEM: This is a mass payout solution from Transpay that enables digital professionals and small and medium-sized IT firms to request payments from their clients. They can directly receive their payments from their bank accounts in local currency within three days. The service currently allows payments from North American clients. The company, however, has partnerships with almost all the banks in Bangladesh that enables it to make payment directly to the recipient's bank account. Hence, one doesn't need any e-wallet or card to withdraw money.

SIMPLE AND EASY SETUP: The system is said to be very easy for the receivers. One can create an account by giving his/her bank details and other relevant information within a few minutes. S/he can also add multiple bank accounts to his/her Transpay account to receive payments. Once s/he has an account, s/he can send requests to his/her clients or business partners simply using their email address.

If one's client or business partner is already a Transpay user, they can readily send the payment. If a business is not an existing user, the company reaches out to that business upon receiving a request and send reminders for opening an account and getting the payment cleared. In most cases, it works.

SECURE: This is a business payment solution that means only businesses can send money to individuals. Transpay conducts proper verification to ensure security and compliance prior to on-boarding a business and allowing it to send money. The company also says that it uses industry-standard protocol and its own technology that keeps the users' data secure.

FREE - NO CHARGES FOR THE RECIPIENTS: This new service is free for the receivers. As a freelancer or professional, you don't pay any charge for receiving money. The system only charges the sender for the service.

Payment continues to be a challenge for freelancers and IT entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. This is one of the reasons why we have this continued discussion about Paypal and all others. The new service as discussed above can potentially be a solution to the problem and help the country's IT outsourcing industry grow bigger.

Ruhul Kader is Co-founder and CEO, Future Start Up

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