Transparency: the only way forward for remittances

Article, 03.06.2015

A successful panel event has been held at the Embassy on transparency in the remittances market. Guest speakers included Marco Nicoli from the World Bank, Michael Kent, founder of Azimo Ltd and François Briod, CEO of Monito. Leon Isaacs, CEO of Developing Markets Associated moderated the discussion.

Ambassador Dominik Furgler speaking at the event "Transparency: the only way forward for remittances" at the Embassy.
Ambassador Furgler speaking at the event. © DFAE

Ambassador Dominik Furgler opened by outlining the importance of remittances to Switzerland’s migrant and diaspora population:
“International remittance flows equal three times the sum of official development assistance. The payments come in small amounts – on average US$200 – and are sometimes earned under difficult conditions. They then face high transaction costs on these earnings due to high fees charged by financial institutions.”

According to Swiss start-up Monito (formerly TawiPay), 200million migrants send US$534billion home each year, many paying as up to 12% in fees, some of which can be ‘hidden’. Monito aims to address this issue by providing a clear price comparison service, and launched their new Global Remittances Observatory at the event on 2 June 2015.

 

Updated: January 2017