Here are some tips for celebrating a particularly happy New Year during the lockdown:

1. Celebrating New Year on Zoom / in small groups – with colleagues, fitness group or family members. Think, you’ll agree, that we’ve already got used to virtual meetings in different areas of our life. This is especially relevant now, when the family is staying abroad, and it is impossible to invite even friends to celebrate the New Year together. The only way is gathering in a small circle and celebrate online with relatives abroad.
2. Gifts? Online only. When there is no opportunity for family members from Russia, Ukraine or other former USSR countries to visit Israel, you can still delight them with a pleasant gift that you may just send. For example, we at GMT have now money transfers with no commission for those who transfer up to 200 dollars or euros to the mentioned countries.
3. Set a dress code. It’s quite clear to you that it is obligatory to dress smartly for the New Year party, but if you happen to invite neighbors to your limited New Year celebration, and this tradition is new to them, you should set a dress code. Corona virus has pretty much eliminated most of the reasons to dress festively for us, so you’d like to make sure everybody looks especially good that night. So, please, dress accordingly!
4. Dance, dance, dance! It’s true, that dancing is not really a New Year tradition. But, hey, as you have a chance to celebrate, shouldn’t you take advantage of it? Set the perfect celebration playlist and use this night for a happy dance session! Remember you don’t have to drive back anywhere?

5. DIY cocktail kit. It’s true that champagne and other warm up beverages is a New Year tradition. But in this period when all bars are closed, you have the opportunity to be a bartender yourself, and there are lots of DIY cocktail kits to help you with that. It’s time to order one and pamper yourself with a good homemade cocktail combined with the traditional greetings and atmosphere.

And don’t let restrictions spoil your New Year mood! Happy New Year!

Pic by Thai Subsea Services Ltd from
https://www.thaisubsea.com/blog/

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During this challenging period for everyone, GMT continues to work as usual to help transfer money abroad to your families.

You can make a transfer in a way, that is most convenient for you: online, using myGMT service, without leaving your home, or visit one of our branches.

Wishing all of you and your families good health!

myGMT – registration is free!

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During the month leading to New Year’s 2020 you can get the following benefits at one of our countrywide branches or when using myGMT (when applicable).

Money Transfers to Russia, Ukraine or Moldova

• • Transfer up to $200 (or Euro) with no commission. This benefit also includes the country of Georgia. (Valid from 22-31/12/2019 Only in GMT Branches) – Request the benefit at the branch when making a transfer
  • 30% discount on all online money transfers to Russia Ukraine or Moldova. You can Register to myGMT here or Login for existing customers 

Benefits for Money Transfers to Philippines, Sri Lanka or Nepal

Valid from 04-31/12/2019

After you make a transfer at one of our branches to one of these destinations during December, we will send you a text message with a special link. 

After filling the short form, you can choose a friend or relative in your country to receive a free airtime top up for their phone.

GMT – Your Trusted Money Transfer Provider

We always strive to give the best possible service and competitive rates. Visit our website to get the latest deals, offers and benefits.

Find a GMT Branch Near You

Terms (PDF)

The post 2019 Customer Benefits at GMT. Enjoy Special Offers on Selected Money Transfers appeared first on GMT - Global Money Transfers.

Why is there a need for foreign workers?
The employment of non-Israeli workers contributes to the expansion of industries in which cheap labour is required. The effect of employing foreign workers on the prices of products and services in the relevant fields is direct, and for the consumer, means a cheaper price.
Instead of investing in technologies, or alternatively, paying Israeli workers a higher wage for all the social benefits implied by this, a foreign worker is cheaper.
Compared to other countries, the percentage of foreign workers in Israel is among the highest, almost double the norm in the Western world.

How does this situation affect Israel as a state of innovation and knowledge, the start-up nation? A report by the Israel Democracy Institute claims that the scope of the phenomenon preserves industries of cheap labour, low productivity, and makes certain businesses highly dependent, and sometimes even exclusively dependent on foreign labourers.
It is important to note that the law in the State of Israel requires that a foreign worker be granted the same conditions as an Israeli citizen; minimum wage, travel expenses,  severance pay, and more.
Contrary to conventional belief, most foreign workers do not take jobs from Israeli citizens, since they are employed in jobs that have low demand from Israeli workers, and industries such as nursing, agriculture and construction are crying out for employees.

While the impact on the price for us, the consumers, it is generally positive; How does this affect society itself?
A report by the Israel Democracy Institute claims that the foreign workers are already a part of the Israeli Labor ecosystem, and not only that – but they have become a part of the social landscape.
The largest employment group, as noted, is foreign workers employed in the field of caregiving – precisely female foreign workers. The work permits are long-term, so their stay in Israel is long. During this time, they find social circles, join communities, often establish families – sometimes mixed families.
Clearly, this has long-term effects that require adjustments in the way of thinking at the political level regarding the fate and future of such families, not to mention the children of foreign workers who were born and raised in Israel.

The question many of us do not ask is why foreign workers choose to come to Israel.
In certain areas of employment, it is the State of Israel that encourages foreign workers by agreements with countries of origin. For example, there are many foreign workers from Turkey and China in the field of construction and agricultural workers from Thailand.
Many foreign workers come here to support their families in the countries of origin. In many cases, the average salaries in the countries of origin are much lower than the salaries they are entitled here.
Therefore, most foreign workers transfer most of their salaries to their families who remain in their homeland.

How do 115,000 foreign workers transfer their money to families in their countries of origin? Most foreign workers will choose to transfer their money quickly through financial services companies such as GMT or through Israel Post offices. GMT’s services offer foreign workers two main options;
Cash Pickup – Transfer of cash to the beneficiary using a secret reference number.
Credit Bank Account – Depositing foreign currency into a bank account worldwide.

Why use the services of non-bank financial companies?
Well, the answer to this is simple – availability, price and excellent professional service.
While the Israel Post has fewer branches, long queues, especially high service and conversion fees – GMT operates with 13 international partners, allowing money transfers to almost half a million locations worldwide, and not only that – GMT has 250 branches nationwide and very convenient hours of operation. All these ensure short queues and competitive prices.

Unlike banks that do not serve accountless customers and postal services that provide money transfer services as a marginal part of a wider range of services, cross border remittances are the main services that GMT specializes in. As a result, the company’s employees and agents succeed in providing professional service that is adapted and developed according to the customer’s requirements.

The post Why use the services of non-bank financial companies? appeared first on GMT - Global Money Transfers.

Between December 23 to December 31 GMT’s clients can enjoy transferring money to CIS countries (Russia, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan ) with no commission.

How can you enjoy this special offer? Easy.

Go to any of our 250 branches.

Tell the clerk the promo code- GMT18

Transfer money to your loved ones, up to 200$\€, with no commision.

And that’s it.

Easy. Fast. Safe.

Just for you.

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Apart from the roundtable we also had 2 pro-lectures for our agents:
Banking and Financial Services in Israel- looking toward the future.
Michael Tayer in one of GMT’s founders and a board member.
In 2018 Michael retired from Jerusalem Bank after serving for six years a Deputy CEO.
In previous positions, Michael was CEO in three different companies; A-soft LTD, Elad Software Systems LTD & Tomer- Software & holdings ltd. Michael also served as VP & board member for Amdocs & Matrix.
Michael specializes in banking software, payment & debit card systems, he holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and is a certified systems engineer.

The post Roundtable Events 2018 appeared first on GMT - Global Money Transfers.

The existence of the Israeli currency exchange market can be traced back to the days of Israel’s founding as country, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. However, it was forbidden for any organizations that weren’t banks to perform currency exchanges until 1997. This led to the eventual rise of a parallel black market for exchanging US dollars, which first began to blossom around Lilenblum street in Tel-Aviv. Forbidding currency exchange outside of banks wasn’t enough, however. The State, at that time, also demanded that anyone who wishes to exchange currencies must also declare the purpose of said exchange. These prohibitions were removed in 1997 as previously mentioned, and ever since then, a fully-legal currency exchange market (or more correctly – currency services providers’ market) exists, which an annual volume of roughly 120 billion dollars. This market is made of hundreds of exchange & money transfer shops (Also known as “changes”) spread across the entire country, most of which, in one way or another, work with or are franchises of either one of the two major players in this market – GMT (who are official partners of MoneyGram in Israel) and Western Union. The currency services market constitutes approximately 10% of all financial & banking activity in Israel. However, this market has been neglected regulation-wise for years, which allowed some questionable and criminal elements to enter this sector, which in turn unjustly caused the whole sector to bear a bad name and ruined the names of every business involved in it.

Also, the old definition of the law that determined a currency services provider’s scope of activities did not include aspects such as non-bank loans, which weren’t regulated whatsoever.

Alongside the legislative failures, the effectiveness of any regulation that was in place was also hindered by the identity of the old regulator, or lack of such thereof, as well as the limited manpower said regulator had available. The manpower situation was in such shambles that six employees of the Currency Services Unit had to supervise over two thousand currency services providers. For these reasons, the Ministry of Finance had decided that starting August 1st, 2016, the Law on Supervising Financial Service (Organized Financial Services) would be brought into effect, which restructured the entire field of currency services, and specifically – the matter of non-bank loans and credit.

Adv. Golan Shlomi, who has years of experience in legally supporting currency services providers, explains how this regulation essentially protects the sector: “Lack of regulation in the sector has led to some undesirable circumstance, the largest of which being the introduction of criminal organizations into the sector and creation of an infrastructure for tax evasion and large-scale money laundering. The new regulations can protect the sector from these. Among other things, organized regulation of the sector will improve the image of the businesses involved in it in the eyes of the clients, and thus will allow the sector to further develop into other areas where alternative services to those provided by the banking system may be offered”.

The post Currency Services Regulations – The Outlines appeared first on GMT - Global Money Transfers.

The main service we provide in GMT is money transfer abroad, which mean that we ask our clients to trust us with their money.

A big part of this trust is to ensure our customers that we operate under the most strict regulations and highest compliance standards.

When we talk about meeting those standards, we talk about making sure our agents are up to them as well. This is why we help an annual Compliance Conference with MONEYGRAM.

On February 2018, we gathered agents from all of Israel to give them information about compliance, updates them about changes in the law, and not lease important- to say HALLO.

The conference’s schedule included lectures about the new legislation, risk management, digital currency and more.

We had the honor of hosting lecturers who are experts in these fields;

Adv. Maya Lederman,

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Met someone online, through an app, dating site, maybe email?
Are they asking you to send them money just so you can meet them? For the first time?

Are they in sudden need of financial aid?

Don’t transfer the money, you may be a victim to a romantic scam.
Many of this cases end with financial lost & a heartbreak.

Person in need scams

A person claiming to be a lawyer, policeman is calling you telling you are they are near you family member, they are asking you to send them money ASAP to pay for an emergency medical service?
This could be a fraud.

Try to call the family member directly, and make sure you have all the details.

Do not transfer the money, you won’t be able to retrieve it.

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