Boosts for Palestinians, Filipinos and homebuyers

UAE Exchange is offering a break to Palestinian expatriates in the Middle East and North Africa by allowing them to remit money to their homeland without paying the service charges.

UAE Exchange's Xpress Money has announced a free remittance drive to Palestine from the Middle East. Ryan Carter / The National

A money transfer company is offering a break to Palestinian expatriates in the Middle East and North Africa.

Until Tuesday, they can remit money to their homeland through UAE Exchange's Xpress Money without paying the service charges at both the send and receive ends of the transaction.

Xpress Money has 34 agent locations in Gaza, including outlets in Jabalia, Nablus and Rafah.

In a press release, Xpress Money said the deal is its way of "expressing its solidarity with the people of Palestine suffering from the Gaza strife".

Xpress Money has 340 locations in the UAE, among its 6,700 agent locations across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena).

"The GCC and Mena region is an important contributor to our business; as a responsible corporate we wanted to do our bit in helping the community when it needed support," says Sudhesh Giriyan,the vice president and business head of Xpress Money.

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Filipino expats sending cargo home have a helping hand from Etihad Cargo. With the Etihad Kabayan Box, the expats can send personal belongings up to 20 kilos for Dh150 and up to 50 kilos for Dh350 by air to Manila. There is no restriction on the number of Etihad Kabayan Boxes that can be booked. Kevin Knight, the airline's chief strategy and planning officer, said: "The new service is ideally suited to the Filipino expatriate community based in the UAE who want to take more luggage with them to their home country, or send gifts to family and friends in the Philippines."

The expatriates do not need to be travelling on the flight to send their boxes. Customers can bring the contents to any of four agency partners. The Abu Dhabi partners are Omeir Travel Agency and Abu Dhabi Cargo Company. In Dubai, the service is handled by Asia Express Shipping Agency) and Cargo Partners.

"I am sure Etihad Airways will be able to provide this service at a very competitive rate," said Grace Princesa, the Philippine Ambassador to the UAE.

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Ajman Bank has a newSharia-compliant home finance offer starting from 2.99 per cent for loans up to Dh5 million. The scheme provides up to 90 per cent of property cost for nationals and up to 85 per cent for expatriates.

"Our new offer is meant to support the economic growth in the country, particularly the exceptional real estate boom which is currently being witnessed," the bank said.