Remittances are an important lifeline in many developing countries. The term remittance refers to the transfer of money from one person to another. The traditional forms of money transfer include mail, draft, or check. However, advancements in technology have allowed remittances to be facilitated through wire transfer, electronic payments, or through secure and fast online portals.
In countries like India, where people often go abroad to pursue their professional dreams, they often transfer money to their family back in theme country. Remittance plays a major role in the financial aspects of such migrants. Furthermore, India is also one of the countries receiving the largest number of remittances. It is also treated as a means of payment for salaries, invoices or any other financial obligations.
A report by the 2019 Migration and Development Brief of the World Bank illustrates how remittances have increased by 9.6% in low-income and middle-income countries to $529 billion from $483 billion in 2017. Similarly, in high-income countries, remittances have risen from $633 billion in 2017 to $689 billion in 2018.Remittances have the power to enhance the standard of living for people abroad and help combat global poverty. The most common method of money transfer has been the electronic payment system through a bank or money transfer service such as Western Union. However, these methods of remittance involve a small fee , but the transfers are executed in as little as ten minutes to reach the recipient.
Depending on your trusted source of money transfer, the fees vary as follows:
Through traditional methods of remittance, the fees were expensive to transfer a small sum of money. However, it is not the same anymore. Online transfer of money had
To highlight 2018 remittance reports from the World Bank, India (USD$79 billion), China (USD$67 billion), Mexico (USD$36 billion), the Philippines (USD$34 billion), and Egypt (USD$29 billion) were the highest recipients of remittance globally.
With the progress of remittance from traditional to digital, there has been a significant upgrade in various other ways, making it the most trusted form of remittance. The advantages of remitting money include:
Many remittance companies have shifted from traditional to technologically-powered futuristic means of providing remittance services. In fact, many companies like MoneyGram, PayPal, Walmart, and Western Union have made the shift in recent days by setting benchmarks in the online remittance community.