Brussels, 11/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - Ahead of the first summit of heads of state to establish a Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) in Paris on 13 July 2008, nine private banks from the northern and southern rims of the Mediterranean set up a working group in Paris on Monday 7 July 2008, which the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the French development agency AFD will be attending as observers. The group's aim is to make it easier and cheaper for Mediterranean ex-pats living in Europe to send money home and make it easier for them to use banks in order to ensure production investment and promotion of SME growth and the funding of infrastructure in the Southern Mediterranean. In 2005, the EIB produced its first study on the transfer of migrant workers' money from the EU to Mediterranean countries.
The protocol of intent was signed on 7 July by a group of financial institutions: Al Amana (Morocco); Attijariwafa Bank (Morocco); Bank of Alexandria (Egypt), a subsidiary of Intesa Sanpaolo; the 'Banque Internationale Arabe de Tunisie' (BIAT - Tunisia); the 'Banque Tuniso-Koweitienne' (BTK - Tunisia), subsidiary of Groupe Caisse d'Épargne; the national confederation of Spanish savings banks (CECA - Spain); 'Crédit Immobilier et Hôtelier' (CIH - Morocco), subsidiary of the 'Groupe Caisse d'Épargne' and the 'Caisse de dépôt et de gestion' (Morocco); France's Groupe Caisse d'Épargne (GCE - France); and Intesa Sanpaolo (Italia). This first group may be joined by other establishments wishing to join the project at a later date.
Every year, immigrants Mediterranean workers in the EU send home more than €10 billion and this grows by nearly 15% a year. Most of the money is not sent via banks, but rather through money transfer agencies, post offices and informally, at relatively high cost. Both savers and the economic systems of beneficiary countries lose out and there are not yet any banks with enough branches on either side of the Mediterranean to organise such large-scale transfers.
Given this situation, the signatory banks have decided to look at how they could work together to develop a range of bank and finance products dedicated to the needs of migrant workers in the EU to make it easier to send bank transfers between bank accounts of clients of the working group banks; and encourage savings to help invest in medium to long-term projects on the southern shores of the Mediterranean (including infrastructure). The signatories confirm their desire to get involved and make the UfM a tangible outcome in the daily lives of migrant workers because without strengthening links between the economies of the Mediterranean, no renewal of political dialogue will be possible to help develop business and, over and above that, better understanding among communities. (O.L.)