Ten most important issues of the internal money transfer industry.

• Author: Nisar, Ahsan
• Position: Industry overview

Byline: Ahsan Nisar

1- If one looks at the remittances figures in FY19, overall increase in volumes from the US and UK will be observed. The valuation effects of the US dollar appreciation against the currencies of remittance-source countries, especially the rupee, influence the impact of growth in remittances. The continuing recovery in the US and a modest acceleration of economic activity in Europe are producing a general increase in overall volume.Coupled with fairly stable prices and competition mostly based in the forex spread, the traditional MTOs have been more optimistic in 2018-19 than in previous years. But, as is common knowledge, the unrecorded flows through informal conduits, is without a doubt, considerably larger than the formal channels.

2- De-risking in the UK is still a problem, however, there has been a slight shift in the market with small banks opening accounts to industry firms amidst higher costs and strict compliance requirements.

3- Price to the public of industry services have been fairly stable during the year with a slight upward trend even though competition in every channel is fierce, more so in the exchange spread than in the fees. US dollar valuation impacts the markets; when the exchange rate in the paying country rises continuously, the exchange rate price competition subsides and volume sent increases.

4- Mobile Money Services continue to expand across the developing world with new cross-border functionalities, systems integrations, partnerships, and regulatory advances for the industry. Domestic use of mobile transfer services spreads. The Global Mobile Systems Association (GMSA) reports that mobile money industry continues to expand globally, with more than 250 live mobile money services in nearly 90 countries. Also, more than 20 deployments have at least one million active mobile money customers and, in 16 markets, there are more mobile money accounts than bank accounts. Mobile money usage continues to be dominated by domestic person-to-person (P2P) transfers and airtime top-ups. Mobile money providers are moving into international remittances at...