A recent article by The Times of Israel highlights a growing trend: more Israelis are transferring funds abroad in response to political instability and regional conflict. As concerns rise over economic uncertainty, GMT has seen a marked increase in the use of its international financial services. With a 50% surge in requests, GMT’s money transfer abroad solutions provide customers with a trusted, compliant, and efficient way to protect their assets and diversify investments. This shift underscores GMT’s critical role in helping individuals and businesses navigate global financial landscapes with confidence.

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Last Thursday, a magical moment took place: the GMT team met the “ Habait Shel Ronit ” team for a special soccer match.

For everyone, it was more than just a match; it was a dream come true of a long-standing partnership with “ Habait Shel Ronit ,” an association working to advance rehabilitation and improvement in the lives of high-functioning people with disabilities.

At GMT, we are proud to support the organization, provide financial assistance to its residents, and help with its ongoing activities. This exciting partnership reminds us of our power to change lives.

The game was much more than just a competition. It was a moment of deep human connection, breaking down barriers, smiles, laughter, and camaraderie that touched everyone’s heart.

GMT employees and “Habait Shel Ronit” participants created something magical together. We met amazing people, learned from each other, and discovered that we are all part of one family.

We are counting down the days until we meet again, excited to see this connection grow and develop. At the end of the day, we all came out as big winners!

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More than a week has passed since the Coronavirus outbreak, and stock exchanges in Israel and around the world appear to be recovering from the sharp declines. TA-35 and TA-125 closed yesterday with the slight increase of 0.05% and 0.12%, respectively. The TA-SME60 index rose by 0.6%. These are slight increases, but they are the change trend after various indices plunged between 1.4% to 1.6%, with oil stocks falling by 2.5%.

In the US, as of yesterday’s evening (Israel local time), before trading closed, the main indices – Dow Jones, NASDAQ and S&P – were up at about 1% each, after closing Tuesday night with declines about 2% each.

The Dow Jones has lost all its gains since the beginning of 2020, dropping to less than 29,000 points. The British FTSE, the German DAX and the European STOXX – each rose close to 1%, and this is after the 2%-2.7% fall the day before yesterday. In Asia, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will only open today, and the stock exchanges that had opened in South Korea, Singapore and Australia, recorded price declines. In China, the source of the epidemic, the stock exchange will get back to work only next Monday, following the extension of the New Year’s holiday in the country. The yuan, China’s national currency, recorded a 1% depreciation.

Michael Tayer, a member of the board at “GMT”, company specializing in money transfers and foreign exchange, and a former CIO at the Bank of Jerusalem, commented that the tourism implications will be felt not only in China, but also worldwide: “China is tightly connected to world countries and to the West,” Tayer told to “Israel Today”, “Chinese outbound and inbound tourism both have potential for spreading the virus, and are therefore significantly affected. This certainly affects tourism in other Asian countries, especially in Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and Australia.”

Text: Gilad Zwick

Photo: Chuttersnup, Unsplash

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In light of strengthening and growing of digital retail players, there is a lot of talk about the future of cash in the market. The impact of Amazon’s entry into the Israeli market cannot be assessed yet. Also, the recently granted license to Marius Nacht’s and Amnon Shashua’s digital bank has made some guesses about how the latter will affect the banking system. In practice, in the digital world we see two types of disruptive phenomena:

The first – dramatic disruption, as it happened with brokerage services in the securities industry, or with flights and hotels booking in the tourism and recreation field. In these areas the power of digital world has wiped out established traditional and longstanding industries.

The second is moderate disruption. The good example in this regard is the field of media and entertainment: with the invention of cinema there has been prophecies on disappearance of theatre, and with the advent of television and videotapes – predictions about the disappearance of cinema. Nowadays, we can see that each of these industries is flourishing and thriving alongside one another.

In the means of payment field, there have been unequivocal predictions, which sometimes included dates for when cash will disappear. A large number of extrapolations have shown strengthening of various types of digital payment, including credit cards, apps and digital wallets, bank transfers, cryptographic currencies as well as regulation arrangements to allow access to these accounts and more.

Meanwhile, surprisingly, the Bank of Israel is reporting a 5% increase in cash transactions (transfers) between 2017 and 2018 and an increase in number of ATM machines worldwide, except of Scandinavian countries, China and Uganda.

I do not pretend to predict the future, not about using cash or other things. But there is still a growing demand for cash, and not necessarily because of money laundering reasons. There are still many legitimate reasons to work with cash, with the most significant argument – indicating the end of a transaction and inability to deny it. There are also other reasons for demanding cash, such as ease of use, independence from technology and electrical infrastructure, bank account fees savings, and, of course, anonymity.

In addition, there are populations (7% on average) that are by a definition pushed aside of new technologies usage, such as unbanked population, those, who refuse to use credit cards, people with low credit ratings, relocating population or migrant workers, when they decide to work with a cash as a solution.

In the e-commerce world credit card is the only mean of payment, and so a payment with PayPal is, by and large, the different way of paying by credit card. While the credit card industry is threatened by the PSD2 (directive supporting payments directly from bank accounts), challenges in the e-commerce industry will not allow this change to take effect in the foreseeable future. Until recently, e-commerce was completely closed for cash payments, and recently we’ve noticed that the winds of changes are blowing in this area.

Today, there is a staging method, which allows to pay with cash for a transaction, but digitally, as “GMT” offers – through its digital wallet, which is currently used to make money transfers abroad. This is the method where a transaction stays “on hold” for 24 hours. During this time a user can deposit cash at one of GMT’s endpoints, and then the transaction will be fully completed. When this method will penetrate other digital trading sites, I have no doubt, it will become a norm. Although this standard will only serve 2% of transactions, in the world of transactions this is still considered a huge number.

Is it still early to declare “The king is dead, long live the king!”? The future will tell.

The article’s author Michael Tayer is a member of the board of directors at “GMT” and in the past CIO at the Bank of Jerusalem.

Photo: Efraim Domb

Main image: Artem Beliaikin, Unsplash

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The three most popular countries where Israelis transferred money in 2019 are Ukraine (17.7%), Moldova (15.7%) and Russia (11.1%). Next on this list are India (9.5%), Georgia (7.7%), the Philippines (7.4%), Thailand (6.8%), Uzbekistan (3.6%) and Romania (1.9%). The list also includes the USA, Canada, Peru, Italy, Bulgaria, Turkey, France, Morocco, Spain, as well as Israel (domestic transfers). The average transfer sum is $600-700.

According to GMT, the number of transfers, as well as the amount of money transfers increase significantly during holidays. For example, each year in December, before the New Year, the volume of money transfers to the countries of the former Soviet Union (Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) increases by 50%.

Eran Sarouk noted, that another reason for transfers growth is that today more Israelis work abroad, and in the first year after moving their bank account is still led in Israel: “We recognize the rise in the number of students studying abroad over the last few years, so their parents are transferring them money.” The main population that uses GMT money transfer services is foreign workers.

The list of countries where foreign workers transfer money corresponds to their countries of origin. For example, in 2019 there was a noticeable decline in the number of transfers to Romania and China. Sarouk explained: “Five years ago there were many transfers to Romania, but today there are practically no such transfers, since Romanian workers have moved to other countries for work.”

Translation of the article by Jenya Volinski, TheMarker

Photo: Danila Hamsterman, Unsplash

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After Alex Averbukh, former Europe champion in Pole Vault was fired from The Israel Athletics Association, GMT Tech Innovations, a financial services company decided to hire him as their presenter for a 100,000 NIS annual contract.

44 year y/o Averbukh who was runner up World Champion and twice in a row won the European championship, represented Israel in the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympic games.

Since then, he is considered the best Israeli Pole Vault athlete.

Averbuch said: “It’s hard to part from athletics, but at the same time I see eye to eye with GMT with regards to values and the connection between sport and community,

and I have to move forward. “When asked whether he would return to the field in the future, he replied:”If there was a position of a paid chairman, I would have already run and done it, but with how it progresses, it does not look like it.”

“I think athletics should not only be in Tel Aviv, but also in the different districts, but unfortunately there is no income for coaches,” he added. He also stated that he believes he will return to the sport as a coach in the future, and that he is planning to establish an association of instructors and coaches that will train Israel’s future generations of Track and Field athletes.

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According to a public announcement published by GMT, both companies share similar business philosophies, something that helped them reach beneficial terms after a prior discussion process:

“After a long and precise process GMT was chosen to be Ripple’s representative in Israel, by so joining Ripple, and its partners, in creating a global financial system, with high-end technology and values such as; transparency and affordable costs.

The GMT team was quite pleased, stating that the use of Ripple technology is an innovation that turns it into a reference to be followed by the different fintechs that operate in the region.

Ripple’s expansion remains unstoppable and has now the company behind XRP managed to conquer Israeli territory after closing a significant deal with GMT in an effort to boost the financial industry in the region and consolidate Ripple’s domination of the market.

According to a public announcement published by GMT, both companies share similar business philosophies, something that helped them reach beneficial terms after a prior discussion process:

“After a long and precise process GMT was chosen to be Ripple’s representative in Israel, by so joining Ripple, and its partners, in creating a global financial system, with high-end technology and values such as; transparency and affordable costs.

The GMT team was quite pleased, stating that the use of Ripple technology is an innovation that turns it into a reference to be followed by the different fintechs that operate in the region.

“GMT is joining companies like MoneyGram, AmericanExpress, CIBC, Earthport, AKBANK and many more, who are already authorized to use Ripple’s platform.

This partnership is establishing GMT’s place in the forefront of the Israeli Fintech industry, also allowing us to work side by side with some of the leading companies in the world.”

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The next generation of franchising

Israeli money transfer giant GMT teams up with the global MoneyGram to create a vast network of 260 franchises, available almost anywhere between The Tel-Aviv Metropolitan Area and Eilat.

CEO Noam Shalev explains how it works.

The world we live in is changing rapidly, primarily due to new technologies being developed. This new tech also creates opportunities in the remittance sector, and allows for faster, easier-to-use, and more accessible means for transferring money.

GMT, the largest remittances company in Israel, has a widespread reach throughout the whole country thanks to roughly 260 independent currency services providers who act as their franchisees. These businesses, in return, get a set of advanced financial services, including money transfer services, which they can then offer their clients.

The advantages that these businesses enjoy thanks to their partnership with GMT are increased transaction volumes, a wider scope of services they can offer their clients, and of course – commissions earned through remittance transactions. When talking about the Israeli remittance market, we’re talking about thousands of daily transactions performed by citizens of Israel, former immigrants, tourists, and foreign workers. The purposes of each transfer naturally vary, and these include, among others: salary transfers by foreign workers, money transfers to relatives abroad (children that may be on a trip), payment for services abroad (tourism and medical expenses), and payments for a relative’s tuition fees who may be studying overseas.

MoneyGram has made a strategic partnership with GMT and made significant investments in technological development, which eventually were converted into growth. Despite MoneyGram’s expansion of their digital solutions and services, one of their core differences from other international remittance companies is their network of agents, which includes over 350,000 service points in over 200 countries and territories worldwide.

Noam Shalev, CEO of GMT, explains the relationship between their headquarters in Ramat Ha-Hayal, Tel-Aviv and their agents across the country: “The clerks at the branches are granted access to GMT’s secure and advanced computer system. Through this system, they perform money transfers for their clients, as well as manager their ongoing balances with us. When a client who wishes to transfer money a destination in another country enters the agent’s shop, the agent simply logs into GMT’s system through their computer, and easily performs the transaction for the client. Within a few minutes, the cash will already be on the other side of the ocean, awaiting withdrawal.

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