It seems that the world is convinced that one of the teachings that this COVID-19 crisis has brought us is the need to step-up the drive to digital in the provision of financial services. There is a new consensus that ditching face-to-face contacts – and brick-and-mortar locations, and replace them with digital interactions is the…
Read my blog inspired by the article written in Medium by fintech author John Biggs about his life during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York which he named “Racing in the Dark”. He referenced other authors and books to remind us that, as humans, we once spent whole seasons confined, hibernating, overwintering. The article let…
Coinciding with the celebration of the 10 year anniversary of IMTC conferences we are faced with one of the most exciting and challenging organizational shifts: The Platinum Network (PNET). Bringing these conferences to life over the past 10 years implied a lot of work in the sense that it took time, energy, and creativity and…
This past November in Miami, we celebrated 10 years of IMTC, with an event that we all are very proud of, IMTC WORLD 2019. This year it marked a record in the number of participants and sponsors, but most of all we had a great diversity in companies & institutions that keep on opening our…
Global payment and remittance companies constantly search for a competitive advantage: service enhancements, promotions, industry segments and target customers to name a few. As the world gets smaller and more connected technologically and in communications, those breakthroughs are harder to find, or at least more difficult to differentiate unique features vs. the available options. Enter…
Migrant Services Providers, from Travel & Foreign Exchange, to Remittances, airtime (top-ups), bill payment and now courier services, keep agents afloat while digital services continue their growth Download PDF Money Transfer Agents are a common feature in all migrant neighborhoods in cities across all the 5 continents. Full of services for migrants, they normally serve…
Both social and economic trends in Latin American and Caribbean countries are increasingly shaped by migration and its intersection with development and economic growth. Therefore, understanding future of migration and how its affect the region can offer cues as to the direction countries will take. An outlook of migration in Latin America and the Caribbean…
Nigerians can be found in most countries of the world. Nigerians are numerous in the United States and the UK, followed by South Africa, UAE and other European countries such as Italy & Spain. As a US survey showed, Nigerians in the US are one of the highest educated migration groups. Due to the ever-growing…
La semana pasada, en la conferencia anual de ESTA, European Cash Management Association (Asociación de Compañías Europeas de Gestión de Dinero), esta vez en Viena, participé en la moderación de un panel denominado “The war on cash: black clouds or blue sky ahead?” (La guerra contra el efectivo: ¿nubes negras o cielos despejados en el…
The Money Transfers & Remittances industry is a relatively young industry. Started in the early eighties, it saw a great technological breakthrough, the fax, that transformed the way orders were filled in distant corners of the earth and transmitted for payment. The evolution since then has been mesmerizing. I analyze the trends in the industry…
Analyzing the results of IMTC ASIA 2018 in Manila September 19-21, the first thing that comes to mind is the very interesting state of the money transfer industry in The Philippines. Companies, colleagues, regulators, government representatives, were very open to share their ideas, their work, their vision, which contributed to understand key transformations that the…
This article was conceived after discussing with colleagues in the industry why the payments world has been driven into the Cash vs. Digital dichotomy. My research on cash has been inspired by analyzing the penalization of cash-based industries, such as the money transfer industry by the banking sector, which has resulted in the derisking phenomenon…
Last week, May 2-5, myself, Hugo Cuevas-Mohr and Olivia Chow, from Yokip Consulting, our partner in the RemTech Awards and The Blockchain Series Coordinator, were in Manila in a round of visits with local authorities, money transfer companies, banks and associations. The main objective was to prepare the program for our coming IMTC ASIA 2018…
PART ONE: Cash: Is the payments king dying? or is the king creating its own separate kingdom? Although is not exactly clear how the payments industry will evolve in the near future, we agree that 2018 is likely to be a significant year for the financial services industry: banks, eCommerce, fintechs, payment institutions and other alternative…
In my recent visit to Chile, where I traveled to make sure the country would be the best site for our 2019 IMC LATAM conference, I was very surprised by the large number of migrants entering the country, the growing number of agents & branches of established money transfer companies such as AFEX, MORE Money…
The news [1] January 2nd didn’t come as a surprise for the industry as President Trump has criticized China for its trade and currency policies and its “America First” slogan has been the damocle’s sword hanging over the deal. We analyzed the deal in a past blog explaining the US Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) involvement in…
In a recent Press Release, the Money Services Business Association (MSBA) – the US trade association that represents the growing non-bank money services industry, announced the formation of a new Board of Directors, a new Chairman of the Board and new Board members. The MSBA named Viamericas Corporation CEO Paul Dwyer as its new Chairman, succeeding…
QUÉ NOS DEJÓ EL 2017 y cómo vemos a la industria en el próximo año. En un breve resumen escrito según mi perspectiva, voy a recorrer cuatro principales acontecimientos que vivimos en la Industria durante el 2017 y presentarles lo que podemos esperar para el 2018 con el fin de, en conjunto, mantener las empresas del…
We thank our colleague Carlos Grossman, for the report out of Chile where the Antimonopoly Division of the National Economic Prosecutor Office (División Antimonopolios de la Fiscalía Nacional Económica – FNE) reports the investigation that took place after an August 2015 complaint by a Forex Firm denouncing seven banks of denying the opening of a…
As you recall from the earlier blog, there are many reasons for MSBs to be cautiously optimistic: new banks are opening with a focus on various types of MSBs, regional and community-based financial institutions are gearing up to perform appropriate due diligence on potential clients, online firms who do not require branches for deposits are…
Let’s first remember. In April 15, 2017, Alibaba’s financial affiliate Ant Financial (Ant) agreed to purchase MoneyGram International, Inc. (MGI) for $18 per share. Ant, which is controlled by the famous Alibaba CEO Jack Ma, increased its price from $13.25 to $18 after RIA’s Euronet put in a bid for $15.20. In order for the…
On Friday, September 22nd, we closed our first Africa Conference. As I mentioned to all participants, the whole process of developing the conference was, from the start, an uphill race, surmounting obstacles and convincing sceptics. But just days before the event, the pieces of the puzzle came in together and a bright and inspiring panorama…
How De-Risking is changing the face of Financial Services worldwide In July 6th & 8th the Economist published two articles that, again, raised the de-risking threat discussion to new levels. The July 6th article was entitled “The great unbanking [1] – Swingeing fines have made banks too risk-averse – It is time to rethink anti-money-laundering…
Los migrantes mexicanos en los EEUU son los mexicanos de primera clase. Es en general la población tomadora de riesgos, trabajadora, que tiene un diferente Work Ethic, aun con respecto a los propios trabajadores americanos promedio. Le dan un valor diferente al esfuerzo y la remuneración que por dicho esfuerzo perciben. Algunos son verdaderos emprendedores…
How the financial crisis, the evolution of Banking and Unbanking and the rise of technology in financial services are all connected The financial crisis and the rise of technology in financial services, that has led to an increase in the importance of NBFIs (Non-Bank Financial Institutions) in the provision of financial services, has created a…
The more I learn about money transfer comparison websites, the more I am fascinated by the results that they provide. And they are getting better and better, and they are each finding a way to present their information and develop their own character. Are they being used by end-users? Who, how? Are they been used…
Last week, The Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD1) published its Migration and Remittances Brief #27 (April 2017) prepared by Dilip Ratha, Supriyo De, Sonia Plaza and the rest of the team2 of the Migration and Remittances Unit of the Global Indicators Group of the World Bank. As I mention in the IMTC conferences,…
A new trend is ready to reinvigorate the remittance industry The International Money Transfer & Payments industry has always relied on a large network of brick & mortar agents, both in the sending side of a corridor as well as in the receiving side. It is more true in the sending side, where mom & pop…
In the process of building the RemTECH Awards http://bit.ly/RemAwards1 and asking ourselves what innovation in the remittances industry meant, I searched the internet and talked to colleagues, both in the traditional financial services sector, bank and non-bank, as well as in fintech start-ups. I began with fintech and what is truly interesting is that there…
(update) MoneyGram and Ant Financial Services Group announced on April 17 that the companies have entered into an Amended Merger Agreement under which MoneyGram will merge with Ant Financial. Ant increased the offer price from $13.25 per share to $18.00 per share in cash (The transaction is valued at approx. $1,204 million). The operation will…
