Just two days after theAcademy Awardsnight, we had another gala to be witness too. This timeas nominees, not only TV spectators of a fabulous show. I’m talkingabout the e-Finance9 AwardsGala, held at JW MarriottBucharest Grand Hotel, yesterday evening.

Yes, it is true, it does nothave the same international awareness as the Oscars, but it doesmanage very well to bring together the most important players inthe Romanian IT&C and Finance sectors. And it does have its own”red carpet”, nomination categories and award statuettes. Notgolden, though 🙂

I know that, because I’mlooking at one. Oh, in case I forgot to mention it right from thestart, we were not just nominees, we were winners. Together withCEC Bank, for our more than 10 years long outstanding collaborationand for the recent qPI-TREZ project, designed to optimize thebank’s treasury operations. That’s why I have sitting on my desk abeautiful statuette as proof that Allevo and CEC Bank are thee-Partnership category winners. It was supposed to beinspirational 🙂

And we had our own MerylStreep, in the person of Corina andour own MichelHazanavicius, the “bestdirector”, the one and only Sorin… Guiman, attending thegala.

As the Oscars had very funnycomedians being very funny and Cirque du Soleil, still being veryimpressive, the e-Finance guests were engaged in a more artsyinitiative. They received poems from the four Romanian poetsinvited to the event.

Here is the poem that Corinareceived (so sorry for the English-speaking readers, the originalpoem is in Romanian. I have tried to adapt it, but I’m not really apoet to make the translation of it look and sound like somethingartistic):

Now, I would like to stay and chat, but we are popping upthe champagne, to celebrate the award amongcolleagues. See ya!

Casablanca – known as the biggest city and port in Morocco or even more likely, the set for Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman’s love story. Too bad Rick’s Café didn’t really exist, because I would have liked to sit there and listen to Sam (Dooley Wilson) playing As Time Goes By. But that’s me, Corina and Dan did not go there for the romance of it 🙂

Cause on the 15^th of February this year, no more than 70 years after Bogart coined the now famous phrase “Here’s looking at you kid”, Casablanca was the host for SWIFTRemit Business Day

Corina and Dan were there, to share about the unique channel to rapidly expand remittances services, about the value and challenges of SWIFTRemit, about remittances trends and challenges in Africa, about innovation in this area and to listen to insights from banks like Caixabank or Attijariwafa. They were also there to talk during the Implementation and integration options sessions, about Allevo’s product qPI-Remit

For those of you not familiar with this product, just a very brief note: qPI-Remit, based on SEPAReady certified qPayIntegrator, is an end-to-end remittance processing solution, dealing with the collection, processing and distribution of remittances. It started quite an interest, as during the breaks my colleagues were busy answering questions, providing additional information and showing demos.

A few general info facts mentioned during the presentations: the last count of worldwide migrants accounted for sums up 250 million people, with transfers in 2010 of 456 billion USD (in Morocco the value raised up to 10% of GDP, summing around 6.9 billion USD). There are some issues in Africa due to huge costs (a medium of 19 USD for 200 USD transferred), reduced competition (90% MTOs – Money Transfer Operators, 2.4% banks and 7.6% postal offices), exclusivity (Nigeria has banned the introduction of exclusivity clauses).

Over all, the agenda was interesting and well structured and the event very well organized, enjoying the participation of over 70 attendees. Both Corina and Dan, were very impressed with the organizer’s courtesy and attention, and felt like the entire event had an “open for collaboration” aura, between different vendors, between vendors and banks. We hope we’ll enjoy the same friendly atmosphere in Dubai as well. And even more, qPI-Remit made new acquaintances.

So, let’s hope this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.