OmniPay temporarily suspends exchange to transition to OmniPay Africa
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.
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So Omnipay is officially moving out from the states?
Yes looks like it. And again we have to find out through the forums. I talked to some exchange companies, they didnt even knew this yet. E-gold is walking a very dangerous path, by not updating a big chunks of their major exchangers. The last e-gold wants to do is piss off their own TOP exchangers.
Well,
Its not all bad news. This means E-gold is not giving up, they will go on, with or without the US. So if people stop panicking and start realising this, the exchange process might be able to stabilise again and exchangers can act normal again..
but of course, people are just too scary, anyway, I am certain E-gold will still be here for a long time, no one can stop them, and I will not give them up as ‘payment option’
Great news makila, thanks!
I also think the news is very good. If Omnipay does this fast, all exchangers will start working normal soon again.
Well at least they’re moving offshore, which is a good first step…
I’m wondering though why they chose Africa, of all places…
What was that thing about their bank in Estonia?Is it concern icegold or i misunderstood?
Could we have the source of this news?
thiec - it’s from the horse’s mouth. http://www.omnipay.com
Adis - I believe they were referring to G&SR’s bank account in Estonia, not Icegold’s.
For goodeness sake, the way to go is ->> OUT of USA !
Duh ! It’s a no-brainer……………
They should have done that YEARS ago to be away from the legalised mafia and leeches ………
>> They should have done that YEARS ago
>> to be away from the legalised mafia and leeches ………
Yes, but I’m afraid: Now its too late to do that after being indicted.
I see this move only as temporarily, to run the business as usual until the final end is clear. In my opinion their move is a ‘need’ to stay in business, as you can read that the SEB Bank will close their account. Now even bank will no longer stay in business with G&SR/eGold/Omnipay because of the US DOJ press release. Think about it!
>> Now even bank will no longer stay in business with G&SR/eGold/Omnipay because of the US DOJ press release.
Yes you are right katzenhai2, but there are still plenty of banks out there (without US intervention) that would be willing to do business with them.
For any problem, there is always a solution.
Unfortunately Adam,
The US has a lot of global influence. Africa maybe one of the few places on the planet that will allow Ominpay the opportunity to do business.
Best wishes
Paul
I thought about these temporaral suspends of exchanges. It means almost everyone will stop the exchanges because they are using Omnipay to outexchange the funds before sending out the wires (thats why there are so long delays in exchanges nowadays). If the exchanges coming to a halt until June 18th, I expect a panic driven outexchange by most people again like in the days after the indictment and seizure of several exchanger egold accounts.