Update: June 21, 2007 OmniPay Africa had planned
to become operational, conducting both in and outexchanges by June 18th. It now appears this service will be
delayed several weeks. Establishment of OmniPay Africa has been on-going, designed to facilitate a remote and
sophisticated payment capability to the majority of mankind underserved or excluded from traditional banking
and constituting it properly is imperative. The complexities of making OmniPay Africa fully operational in an
accelerated manner have been greater than originally anticipated causing this delay. We assure you we are
working diligently to bring OmniPay Africa online.
Notice May 24, 2007: Effective immediately, G&SR will be leasing the OmniPay business to
OmniPay Africa. All OmniPay exchanges will now involve e-gold
transfers and money payments into/out of OmniPay Africa's e-gold and
bank accounts respectively. G&SR has contracted to serve as the
Operator of OmniPay but will not be a party to actual exchanges.
In terms of immediate impacts:
- The OmniPay exchange service will suspend operation pending
provisioning of a suitable bank account for OmniPay Africa. It is
anticipated this service interruption will start May 24, 2007
with service resuming on or about June 18, 2007. - With resumption, all bank wires from customers must be directed to
the new bank coordinates which will be posted on the omnipay.com website.
The original plan was for OmniPay Africa to organize as a licensee of
G&SR, the US company that owns OmniPay. A substantial development
effort was underway to support the additional requirements for
over-the-counter exchange operations such as biometric validation.
However, recent actions of the US government, originating from a
long-standing and misguided animus on the part of the US Secret
Service, necessitate immediate action. Specifically, SEB Bank in
Estonia has notified G&SR it is closing its bank account at close of
business May 25, 2007 explicitly because of the Press Release from the US
DOJ.
We regret the temporary interruption of OmniPay services. Just as the
US government's recent actions in seizing e-gold accounts of e-gold
Ltd., G&SR, The Bullion Exchange, AnyGoldNow, IceGold, GitGold, The
Denver Gold Exchange, GoldPouch Express and 1MDC (and forcing G&SR to
liquidate the seized assets!) have severely damaged not only these
exchange businesses but also their innumerable customers, their
forcing this complex transition to be performed on an emergency basis
is simply shameful.
We do not however regret the transfer of OmniPay responsibilities to
OmniPay Africa. As will become abundantly clear in coming months, the
OmniPay Africa team is highly qualified to guide OmniPay to a higher
level, a genuinely global service that will foster a beneficial surge
in e-gold's emergence while bringing significant advantages to
emerging economies.
Strategic Background
A major strategic emphasis for e-gold is to provide sophisticated
remote payments capabilities to the majority of mankind underserved
by or excluded by the banking system. An important focus is
international remittances - payments from migrant workers living in
advanced economies sending a portion of their earnings to their home
country. For many developing economies, migrant remittances
constitute a significant portion of foreign exchange income and even
GDP. Traditional remittance mechanisms, however, are expensive and
inflexible. It is estimated that lowering the net cost of remittances
by a few percentage points could measurably enhance economic
development. There is also increasing awareness that non-traditional
banking such as micro-credit facilities can also aid in bootstrapping
lesser developed economies.
OmniPay Africa, an entirely non-US company, majority owned by
prominent business leaders from the Francophone countries of West
Africa, was therefore organized to extend the usefulness of e-gold by
providing support for over-the-counter exchange and by fostering the
integration of e-gold into micro-credit lending institutions. The
combination of e-gold (settling the international transfer of value
with no need for a financial intermediary) and OmniPay (offering
standardized, reliable, low cost exchange to/from local currency)
will serve as a flexible low cost alternative to the traditional
systems.
