Remittance Transfers, Competition and Financial Inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Scorecard

Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean, which exceeded US$70 billion dollars in 2015, are playing a key role in the region’s economic development.  The marketplace for money transfers has contributed to that impact by increasingly offering low transaction costs, a wide range of financial products and opportunities for financial inclusion.  

We hope you can join us for a lively and informative discussion for the release of the Family Remittances 2016 Scorecard Report.  The report presents the results of competition across the U.S. money transfer industry measured through twelve indicators, including transfer costs, payment networks and consumer support.  The Inter-American Dialogue has released scorecards since 2006 covering more than 50 money transfer companies, analyzing and ranking performance in the sector.

Among the findings of this year’s report are the emergence of new competitors, the continued decline of transfer costs, and a widespread expansion of over 500,000 banking and non-banking financial institutions paying money transfers in at least ten countries.

 Report presentation:

• Manuel Orozco, Director, Migration, Remittances and Development Program, Inter-American Dialogue

Commentators:

• Paul Dwyer, CEO of Viamericas Corporation
• Gene Nigro, Regional Director-Head Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean at Xoom, a PayPal service
• Alberto Laureano, CEO, Barri International 

Moderator:

• Michael Shifter, President, Inter-American Dialogue

Join the conversation on Twitter at @The_Dialogue.