Wells Fargo has made inroads to Vietnam by partnering with the Commercial Bank of Vietnam (Incombank) by offering an account-to-account remittance program. Customers in the United States can send up to $3,000 a day to Vietnam for $8. As one of the largest banks in Vietnam, Incombank gives recipients an opportunity to claim their funds at more than 700 branches and 400 ATMs throughout Vietnam.
Wells Fargo has made inroads to China by partnering with the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), one of the largest banks in China, by offering an account-to-account remittance program. Customers in the United States can send up to $1,000 a day to China for $8. Recipients can claim their funds at more than 31,000 ABC branches and 12,500 ATMs throughout China.
In the Dominican Republic, commercial bank Banco Popular Dominicano (BPD) partners with MoneyGram to distribute products through branches and ATMs. Banco Popular Dominicano (BPD), the largest bank in the Dominican Republic, with approximately 30% of the market, formed a joint-venture with MoneyGram to link remittances with banking products, equip its automatic teller machines (ATMs) to process money transfers, and link transfers to its payment services.
RuralNet, a cooperative venture of rural banks, has been established to provide interconnectivity between rural banks and other players in the formal remittance market in the Philippines. This is seen to potentially address the "unbanked problem".
To do this, RuralNet offers services including:
In Mexico, on a weekly basis, the Procuraduria Federal del Consumidor (PROFECO)- the Federal Attorney's Office of Consumer - publishes fee statistics on a USD $300 remittance, the exchange rate banks apply to the payments, dollars received and the total cost of the remittances.
This information helps Mexican migrants make informed choices when sending remittances home.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ('BSP', the Central Bank of the Philippines) issued a circular in January 2005 requiring bank and non-bank financial institutions to s to register with the BSP and to post the charges for their various remittance products including cost clarifications. This is partly to address the non-response of service fees despite the decrease in costs incurred because of automation in the remittance process.
This publication presents the current situation with regard to the magnitude and economic impact of migrants’ remittances to their countries of origin.
The book surveys:
This project was undertaken by the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Africa Region and Development Prospects Group at the World Bank with the objective of examining the incidence and impacts of migration and remittances across sub-Saharan Africa, a region where relatively little is known about migration trends and the impact of remittances upon development.
Banks can play a stronger role in keeping transfer fees low for migrants through the creation of special services with features that aid migrant’s remittance transfers. An example of such services are the joint checking accounts offered by the Moroccan Banque Populaire. Through their own branches and agreements with banks in European countries, migrants in Europe can make deposits into the account which can then be accessed by family members in Morocco.
The "Colombia Nos Une" ('Colombia Unites Us') program was created by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through its Directorate of Migration Affairs, Consular and Citizen Services, specifically targeting Colombians living abroad.
It aims to :