According to the World Trade Bank, transaction fees for money transfers now average around 45% globally, yet certain remittance corridors are a lot higher cost to use, especially in the developing markets.
Currently, the majority of remittance flows globally are via cash-to-cash transfers.
There are a number of startups competing with the likes of Western Union and MoneyGram to provide lower-cost and faster remittance services globally, but interestingly, many of them have been building their services with relatively little overlap of the regions that they are targeting first.
Facebook is in a position to control the lion's share of remittances sent globally by offering below market-rate transfers and the best experience on mobile.
"The G.C.C. is one of the highest remittance outflow areas globally, with Saudi Arabia coming in second in the world after the United States," said George Naufal, an assistant professor of economics at the American University of Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, who co-authored a report on the topic last month.
Remittances are rising globally.
Remittances, which are globally estimated to be worth more than three times foreign aid from rich countries, have in some countries not only helped to cut poverty levels, but also to reduce hunger and improve diets, it says.
"We are about to make bitcoin much more available by upgrading the world's existing kiosk and ATM infrastructure into a globally interconnected bitcoin cash exchange and remittance network," Robocoin CEO Jordan Kelley told TechCrunch.
AndroidPay, Google's wallet for Android devices, is getting a boost in its global profile and functionality today: WorldRemit, the $500 million remittance startup connected to around 120 million mobile money accounts globally, which lets residents in one country transfer money to family and friends in another, has announced that it will now let people make transfers using Google's mobile wallet.
In 2012, $478 billion in remittances, money transfers across borders, occurred globally.
