The new MONEY SERVICE BUSINESS ASSOCIATION – MSBA – is announced in the US

Associations, News & Comments

The organizing committee, in its first public announcement, stated: “The MSBA is a trade association focused on the non-bank money services industry, including licensed money transmitters and their agents/authorized delegates, payment card issuers and distributors, payment processors, international remittance companies, bill payment companies, mobile payment application providers, payment aggregators, virtual currency exchanges and administrators, eWallet providers…

The Periodic Table of Remittances

News & Comments

Faisal Khan, a Banking, Payments & Fintech Consultant in Dubai has compiled an impressive list of everything related to Money Transfers that he has collected graphically in a Periodic Table of Remittances. The impressive list of around 160 items has been divided in categories such as Comparison Sites, Influential Regulators,Platforms, Emerging Players, Incumbent Players, Payment Networks, Niche Players, Data Sources, People, Software, Airtime Transfers, Conferences, Forums, Blogs…

Will Western Union Buy MoneyGram?

News & Comments

Even if the news were quenched, the debate lingers

The news gained momentum on May 5th when Bloomberg reported that WU was in talks with MGI. Immediately MGI shares shoot up almost 40% and WU shares also went up slightly. My phone started ringing with investment advisor asking for my opinion. I had little to say, really. But the following day…

THE TEN MOST IMPORTANT NEWS OF THE MT INDUSTRY FOR 2014

News & Comments

As I did for 2013, I have put together the 10 most important news stories for the Money Transfer Industry in 2014, as a way to reflect back and at the same time analyze the trends for the coming year. They are not necessarily in order of importance. They are based on my personal opinions and ideas from friends and colleagues in the industry.

If you want to read it from a PDF, view it | download it from here

If I miss something of importance or if you have any type of comment, please do it in LinkedIn. We would love to hear you opinion. Please go to our Linkedin Group following this link: http://linkd.in/WiQVFa and it will take you directly to the discussion.

Hugo Cuevas-Mohr

HOW TELCOS, MTOS AND BANKS COULD CRASH OVER REMITTANCES

News & Comments

Incumbents such as Western Union and MoneyGram do it. Traditional players do it. So, still, do some banks. And Telcos do too in some markets. The “it” is enable people to move money to each other in and between countries. Hugo Cuevas-Mohr shares insights gleaned from his work with money transfer professionals from all over the world about the remittance market, the role of traditional players, banks and telcos and who has the edge as this $500 billion industry evolves.

The following are the questions and answers provided by Hugo Cuevas-Mohr when interviewed by PYMNTS.com over his document “Are Telcos, Money Transfer Companies (MTOs) and Banks on a collision course over remittances?” (The document can be downloaded from there).
Click the questions below to open the answers. Please give us your comments and join the conversation here.

Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean in 2013

Country Profiles, News & Comments

On February 27, 2014 at the Interamerican Dialogue in Washington D.C.  remittance expert Manuel Orozco presented his yearly analysis of the volume of remittances entitled “Current Perspectives on Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean in 2013” and a PDF version of his briefing can be viewed/downloaded at the end of this short note. The paper considers the possible impact of immigration reform in the US on remittances and on the lives of migrants.

In 2013, family remittances to the region experienced little growth for most of the major remittance recipient countries. This may be a byproduct of immigration controls and deportations, demography, regulatory constraints and a slow recovery from the recession. Remittances have not grown substantially from 2012 and the total volume to the region was 60 billion, slightly decreasing by 1%. Manuel divides the results for the year in three groups:

The power of Linkedin

IMTC, News & Comments

Do you know?

Do you know that Linkedin has 259 million users and growing by about 38% per year? Do you know that 40% of members check in daily and 38% do it from their phones? Do you know that it had a 35% growth in traffic in the past year? And that it is responsible for 64% of all visits from social media channels to corporate websites?Do you know we have a great IMTC Linked in Group?

My Five Fearless Trends for Money Transfer

News & Comments

We are enclosing trends and predictions for the Payment Industry from Professor Arun Sharma who will be a keynote speaker at the IMTC USA 2013 Conference and Trade Fair in Los Angeles from April 3rd to the 5th, 2013. This brief summary will be complemented in his presentation in the conference on Friday, April 5th, 2013.

Dr. Arun Sharma is Executive Director of the JAE Leadership Institute and Professor in the Marketing Department at the School of Business Administration, University of Miami. Arun has extensive knowledge of the Money Transfer Industry through his experience in consulting and conducting seminars. He is has worked for about two decades in this industry and he has conducted studies for multiple firms in the payment services industry.