No Easy Solution: A Smorgasbord of Factors Drive Remittance Costs

No Easy Solution: A Smorgasbord of Factors Drive Remittance Costs PDF Author: Tito Nícias Teixeira da Silva Filho
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1513592955
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 62

Get Book Here

Book Description
There has been a global push to decrease the cost of remittances since at least 2009, which has culminated with its inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. Despite this effort and the emergence of new business models, remittance costs have been decreasing very slowly, disproving predictions that sharp declines would be just around the corner. In addition, remitting to poorer countries remains very expensive. Oddly, this situation has not been able to elicit academic interest on the drivers of remittance costs. This paper delved deeply into the remittances ecosystem and found a very complex, heterogenous and unequal environment, one in which costs are driven by a myriad of factors and where there are no easy and quick solutions available, which explains the disappointing outcome so far. Nonetheless, it also shows that while policymakers have limited room to act they still have a very important role to play.

No Easy Solution: A Smorgasbord of Factors Drive Remittance Costs

No Easy Solution: A Smorgasbord of Factors Drive Remittance Costs PDF Author: Tito Nícias Teixeira da Silva Filho
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1513592955
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 62

Get Book Here

Book Description
There has been a global push to decrease the cost of remittances since at least 2009, which has culminated with its inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. Despite this effort and the emergence of new business models, remittance costs have been decreasing very slowly, disproving predictions that sharp declines would be just around the corner. In addition, remitting to poorer countries remains very expensive. Oddly, this situation has not been able to elicit academic interest on the drivers of remittance costs. This paper delved deeply into the remittances ecosystem and found a very complex, heterogenous and unequal environment, one in which costs are driven by a myriad of factors and where there are no easy and quick solutions available, which explains the disappointing outcome so far. Nonetheless, it also shows that while policymakers have limited room to act they still have a very important role to play.

Digital Money and Remittances Costs in Central America, Panama, and the Dominican Republic

Digital Money and Remittances Costs in Central America, Panama, and the Dominican Republic PDF Author: Ms. Alina Carare
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 29

Get Book Here

Book Description
This paper investigates factors that predict variation in digital and non-digital remittance fees over time and across countries, exploring differences between CAPDR and other regions. The paper fills a void in the literature on how country- and corridor-specific factors relate to remittance fees at different levels of digitalization of the transaction mode. It also complements stylized facts and regression analysis with a survey analysis of the CAPDR authorities’ views on the latest developments, possibilities, and risks related to digital remittances with a view to gauging the authorities’ potential role in further reducing the cost of cross-border payments more generally and remittances fees in particular. The paper finds a clear trend of declining remittance fees across countries and at any level of digitalization, albeit they remain higher for CAPDR countries relative to non-CAPDR countries. More competition, financial and digital development in receiving countries—such as debit/credit card ownership or bank branch penetration—are associated with lower remittance fees, especially in CAPDR. The surveyed authorities actively explore the use of digital money to advance domestic payment systems, expedite financial inclusion, and lower remittances fees, yet see considerable risks, especially for preserving monetary sovereignty in CAPDR.

How Do Transaction Costs Influence Remittances

How Do Transaction Costs Influence Remittances PDF Author: Mr. Kangni R Kpodar
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 43

Get Book Here

Book Description
Using a new quarterly panel database on remittances (71 countries over the period 2011Q1- 2020Q4), this paper investigates the elasticity of remittances to transaction costs in a high frequency and dynamic setting. It adds to the literature by systematically exploring the heterogeneity in the cost-elasticity of remittances along several country characteristics. The findings suggest that cost reductions have a short-term positive impact on remittances, that dissipates beyond one quarter. According to our estimates, reducing transaction costs to the Sustainable Development Goal target of 3 percent could generate an additional US$32bn in remittances, higher that the direct cost savings from lower transaction costs, thus suggesting an absolute elasticity greater than one. Among remittance cost-mitigation factors, higher competition in the remittance market, a deeper financial sector, and adequate correspondent banking relationships are associated with a lower elasticity of remittance to transaction costs. Similarly, remittance cost-adaptation factors such as enhanced transparency in remittance costs, improved financial literary and higher ICT development coincide with remittances being less sensitive to transaction costs. Supplementing the panel analysis, the use of micro data from the USA-Mexico corridor confirm that migrants facing higher transaction costs tend to remit less, and that this effect is less pronounced for skilled migrants and those that have access to a bank account.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Fintech Hype Meets Reality in the Remittances Market

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Fintech Hype Meets Reality in the Remittances Market PDF Author: Tito Nícias Teixeira da Silva Filho
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 45

Get Book Here

Book Description
Fintech has become one of the most popular topics among policymakers and experts. It usually comes with the qualifier “disruptive”. Thus, the hype is easy to understand: fintech would upend the financial system due to its disruptive nature, as it would allow financial services to be completed faster, cheaper, and more efficiently. Indeed, many have predicted that the remittances market was on the verge of being disrupted as remittances are considered too costly while remittance service providers inefficient, opaque, and outdated. Therefore, there seems to be no better setting for assessing the allegedly disruptive effects of fintech. Against that background, this paper investigates how those predictions have fared so far. Contrary to expectations, it found that instead of disrupting incumbents fintechs have increasingly been entangled with them. Therefore, not only there is no evidence of disruption, but it is unlikely to occur in the foreseeable future. Even so, the paper argues that fintechs play an important role in the remittances market.

Nigeria’s ENaira, One Year After

Nigeria’s ENaira, One Year After PDF Author: Jookyung Ree
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 46

Get Book Here

Book Description
This paper reflects on the first year of the eNaira—the first CBDC in Africa. Despite the laudable undisrupted operation for the first full year, the CBDC project has not yet moved beyond the initial wave of limited adoption. Network effects suggest the initial low adoption spell will require a coordinated policy drive to break it. The eNaira’s potential in financial inclusion requires a strategy to set the right relationship with mobile money, given the former’s potential to either complement or substitute the latter. Cost savings from integrating CBDC—as a bridge vehicle—in the remittance process may also be substantial.

Blockchain Fundamentals for Web 3.0

Blockchain Fundamentals for Web 3.0 PDF Author: Mary C. Lacity
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
ISBN: 1610757904
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 580

Get Book Here

Book Description
Our book explains the movement to establish online trust through the decentralization of value, identity, and data ownership. This movement is part of ‘Web 3.0’, the idea that individuals rather than institutions will control and benefit from online social and economic activities. Blockchain technologies are the digital infrastructure for Web 3.0. While there are many books on blockchains, crypto, and digital assets, we focus on blockchain applications for Web 3.0. Our target audience is students, professionals, and managers who want to learn about the overall Web 3.0 landscape—the investments, the size of markets, major players, and the global reach—as well as the economic and social value of applications. We present applications that use Web 3.0 technologies to unlock value in DeFi, NFTs, supply chains, media, identity, credentials, metaverses, and more. Readers will learn about the underlying technologies, the maturity of Web 3.0 today, and the future of the space from thought-leaders. This textbook is used by undergraduate and graduate Blockchain Fundamentals courses at the University of Arkansas, the University of Wyoming, and other universities around the world. Professors interested in adopting this book for instructional purposes are welcome to contact the authors for supporting instructional materials.

The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate PDF Author: Richard Condon
Publisher: RosettaBooks
ISBN: 0795335067
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 312

Get Book Here

Book Description
The classic thriller about a hostile foreign power infiltrating American politics: “Brilliant . . . wild and exhilarating.” —The New Yorker A war hero and the recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, Sgt. Raymond Shaw is keeping a deadly secret—even from himself. During his time as a prisoner of war in North Korea, he was brainwashed by his Communist captors and transformed into a deadly weapon—a sleeper assassin, programmed to kill without question or mercy at his captors’ signal. Now he’s been returned to the United States with a covert mission: to kill a candidate running for US president . . . This “shocking, tense” and sharply satirical novel has become a modern classic, and was the basis for two film adaptations (San Francisco Chronicle). “Crammed with suspense.” —Chicago Tribune “Condon is wickedly skillful.” —Time

Dictatorship, Disorder and Decline in Myanmar

Dictatorship, Disorder and Decline in Myanmar PDF Author: Monique Skidmore
Publisher: ANU E Press
ISBN: 1921536330
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Get Book Here

Book Description
Mass peaceful protests in Myanmar/Burma in 2007 drew the world's attention to the ongoing problems faced by this country and its oppressed people. In this publication, experts from around the world analyse the reasons for these recent political upheavals, explain how the country's economy, education and health sectors are in perceptible decline, and identify the underlying authoritarian pressures that characterise Myanmar/Burma's military regime.

Bringing Government Into the 21st Century

Bringing Government Into the 21st Century PDF Author: Robert P. Beschel
Publisher: Directions in Development
ISBN: 9781464808814
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume--a collaborative work between the World Bank's Global Governance Practice and a team of researchers working with the Korean Development Institute--is dedicated to the proposition that there is much that can be learned from a careful and nuanced assessment of Korea's experience with e-governance. It seeks to draw lessons both from the large reservoir of experience as to what has worked, as well as the more limited and isolated examples of what has not. In particular, it seeks to achieve two objectives. The first is to accurately understand, capture and distill the key dimensions of Korea's e-governance experience so that it can be properly understood and appreciated. Towards this end, some of the world's leading experts on Korea's e-governance experience have been engaged in its preparation, and their conclusions have been carefully vetted and reviewed by other leading scholars of the role of IT systems within government. The goal is to avoid flip generalizations or characterizations, such as 'political will is important' or 'it is important to embed e-governance within a broader strategy to develop a domestic IT industry, ' but to truly understand the complex interplay between differing political, economic and bureaucratic interests and how they shaped decisions about developing the technological and human infrastructure that would support Korea's successful thrust to be the world's leading nation in this area. The second is to ponder the lessons learned and what did and did not work from Korea's experience for other developing countries seeking to strengthen the role of information technology within their public sectors.

The Search for the "Manchurian Candidate"

The Search for the Author: John D. Marks
Publisher: Dell Publishing Company
ISBN: 9780440201373
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Get Book Here

Book Description
The CIA's attempt to find effective mind control techniques are recounted from their origins in the drug research of World War II, to their experiments on frequently unknowing subjects involving hypnosis and drugs such as LSD