Download or read book The Remittance Market in India written by Gabi G. Afram and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2012-01-09 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Millions of migrants worldwide send billions of dollars in remittances each year to their families or communities of origin. In many developing countries, remittances are an important source of family and national income and also are the largest source of external financing. Remittances are better targeted at the needs of the poor than foreign aid or foreign direct investment (FDI) as recipients often depend on remittances to cover daily living expenses, to provide a cushion against emergencies, or to make small investments in business or education. Therefore, international remittance services should be safe, efficient, and reliable. This can be achieved by increasing competition in the remittance industry, providing broader access to payment system infrastructure, enhancing transparency, and ensuring a sound and predictable legal and regulatory framework. With an estimated US$55 billion in remittance inflows in 2010, India is the world's foremost remittance destination. The size and potential impact of these inflows is large. Despite substantial progress over the past 15 years, the provision of accessible, efficient, and cost-effective remittance services in India could be improved. Remittances transfers often can be costly relative to the low incomes of remitters and the small amounts involved, especially in rural India, and are not accessible. Attempts to examine the remittance market in India have been limited. This policy note attempts to fill this gap by undertaking a broad, detailed investigation of the Indian remittance market and analyzing its characteristics based on the General Principles for International Remittance Services (GPs). It identifies some of the key actions and public policy measures for the improvement and future development of this market that would make it more contestable, transparent, accessible, and sound. Such actions and policy measures could assist financial institutions and policy makers in enhancing the safety and efficiency of, as well as lowering the costs of, remittance services in India.

Download or read book The Remittance Market in India written by Gabi G. Afram and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2012-01-09 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes the remittance market in India and attempts to identify some of the key actions and public policy measures for the improvement and future development of this market.

Download or read book International Transactions in Remittances written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2009-09-14 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The International Transactions in Remittance: Guide for Compilers and Users (RCG) presents concepts, definitions, and classifications related to remittances. It is consistent with the new standards for measuring balance of payments transactions, as contained in the sixth edition of the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6). These standards are used globally to compile comprehensive and comparable data. The RCG identifies the main remittances compilation methods currently being used by compilers and discusses in detail the strengths and weaknesses of each method. It is the first manual providing compilation guidance for remittances and is also the first compilation guide based on concepts set out in BPM6. Although the RCG is primarily aimed at remittances data compilers, it may also be useful for users who wish to understand remittances data.

Download or read book General Principles for International Remittance Services written by Group of Ten. Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Remittance Markets in Africa written by Sanket Mohapatra and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Remittances sent by African migrants have become an important source of external finance for countries in the Sub-Saharan African region. In many African countries, these flows are larger than foreign direct investment and portfolio debt and equity flows. In some cases, they are similar in size to official aid from multilateral and bilateral donors. Remittance markets in Africa, however, remain less developed than other regions. The share of informal or unrecorded remittances is among the highest for Sub-Saharan African countries. Remittance costs tend to be significantly higher in Africa both for sending remittances from outside the region and for within-Africa (South-South) remittance corridors. At the same time, the remittance landscape in Africa is rapidly changing with the introduction of new remittance technologies, in particular mobile money transfers and branchless banking. This book presents findings of surveys of remittance service providers conducted in eight Sub-Saharan African countries and in three key destination countries. It looks at issues relating to costs, competition, innovation and regulation, and discusses policy options for leveraging remittances for development in Africa.

Download or read book Migration and Remittances During the Global Financial Crisis and Beyond written by Ibrahim Sirkeci and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2012-05-30 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 2008 financial crisis, the possible changes in remittance-sending behavior and potential avenues to alleviate a probable decline in remittance flows became concerns. This book brings together a wide array of studies from around the world focusing on the recent trends in remittance flows. The authors have gathered a select group of researchers from academic, practitioner and policy making bodies. Thus the book can be seen as a conversation between the different stakeholders involved in or affected by remittance flows globally. The book is a first-of-its-kind attempt to analyze the effects of an ongoing crisis on remittance flows globally. Data analyzed by the book reveals three trends. First, The more diversified the destinations and the labour markets for migrants the more resilient are the remittances sent by migrants. Second, the lower the barriers to labor mobility, the stronger the link between remittances and economic cycles in that corridor. And third, as remittances proved to be relatively resilient in comparison to private capital flows, many remittance-dependent countries became even more dependent on remittance inflows for meeting external financing needs. There are several reasons for migration and remittances to be relatively resilient to the crisis. First, remittances are sent by the stock (cumulative flows) of migrants, not only by the recent arrivals (in fact, recent arrivals often do not remit as regularly as they must establish themselves in their new homes). Second, contrary to expectations, return migration did not take place as expected even as the financial crisis reduced employment opportunities in the US and Europe. Third, in addition to the persistence of migrant stocks that lent persistence to remittance flows, existing migrants often absorbed income shocks and continued to send money home. Fourth, if some migrants did return or had the intention to return, they tended to take their savings back to their country of origin. Finally, exchange rate movements during the crisis caused unexpected changes in remittance behavior: as local currencies of many remittance recipient countries depreciated sharply against the US dollar, they produced a “sale” effect on remittance behavior of migrants in the US and other destination countries.

Download or read book Balance of Payments Compilation Guide written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1995-03-15 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A companion document to the fifth edition of the Balance of Payments Manual, the Balance of Payments Compilation Guide shows how the conceptual framework described in the Manual may be implemented in practice. The primary purpose of the Guide is to provide practical guidance for using sources and methods to compile statistics on the balance of payments and the international investment position. the Guide is designed to assist balance of payments compilers and statisticians in understanding the relative strengths and weaknesses of various approaches. The material reflects the emergence of new data sources and adaptations in the application of statistical methodologies to changing circumstances. Discussed in the Guide are all of the tasks that a BOP compiler normally performs. Appendices contain a set of model BOP questionnaires and a set of model BOP publication tables. Relationships between the balance of payments statistics and relevant aspects of national accounts are covered as well.

Download or read book The Global Findex Database 2017 written by Asli Demirguc-Kunt and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2018-04-19 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2011 the World Bank—with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—launched the Global Findex database, the world's most comprehensive data set on how adults save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. Drawing on survey data collected in collaboration with Gallup, Inc., the Global Findex database covers more than 140 economies around the world. The initial survey round was followed by a second one in 2014 and by a third in 2017. Compiled using nationally representative surveys of more than 150,000 adults age 15 and above in over 140 economies, The Global Findex Database 2017: Measuring Financial Inclusion and the Fintech Revolution includes updated indicators on access to and use of formal and informal financial services. It has additional data on the use of financial technology (or fintech), including the use of mobile phones and the Internet to conduct financial transactions. The data reveal opportunities to expand access to financial services among people who do not have an account—the unbanked—as well as to promote greater use of digital financial services among those who do have an account. The Global Findex database has become a mainstay of global efforts to promote financial inclusion. In addition to being widely cited by scholars and development practitioners, Global Findex data are used to track progress toward the World Bank goal of Universal Financial Access by 2020 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The database, the full text of the report, and the underlying country-level data for all figures—along with the questionnaire, the survey methodology, and other relevant materials—are available at www.worldbank.org/globalfindex.

Download or read book No Easy Solution A Smorgasbord of Factors Drive Remittance Costs written by Tito Nícias Teixeira da Silva Filho and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2021-07-30 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Global Economic Prospects 2006 written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: International migration, the movement of people across international boundaries to improve economic opportunity, has enormous implications for growth and welfare in both origin and destination countries. An important benefit to developing countries is the receipt of remittances or transfers from income earned by overseas emigrants. Official data show that development countries' remittance receipts totaled 160 billion in 2004, more than twice the size of official aid. This year's edition of Global Economic Prospects focuses on remittances and migration. The bulk of the book covers remittances.

Download or read book Remittances written by Samuel Munzele Maimbo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2005 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Migrants have long faced unwarranted constraints to sending money to family members and relatives in their home countries, among them costly fees and commissions, inconvenient formal banking hours, and inefficient domestic banking services that delay final payment to the beneficiaries. Yet such remittances are perhaps the largest source of external finance in developing countries. Officially recorded remittance flows to developing countries exceeded US$125 billion in 2004, making them the second largest source of development finance after foreign direct investment. This book demonstrates that governments in developing countries increasingly recognize the importance of remittance flows and are quickly addressing these constraints.

Download or read book Migrant Labor Remittances in South Asia written by Samuel Munzele Maimbo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2005-06-01 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to a recent World Bank study of remittances, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are all among the top 20 receivers of remittances, with estimated receipts of US$3.2 billion, US$8.4 billion and U.S$ 1.5 billion respectively. 'Migrant Labor Remittances in South Asia' identifies and discusses the key issues affecting the remittance industry in South Asia. It examines the development and implementation of policies, processes, and infrastructure to foster a development-oriented transfer of financial resources between migrants in developed economies and their families in the region. Rather than duplicate previous remittances work, this title only focuses on the region?s distinguishing characteristics, namely: --A large migrant population of semi-skilled and unskilled workers largely concentrated in the Arabian Gulf countries, particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. --The presence of dedicated public institutions and government financial incentives aimed at facilitating and providing incentives for temporary migration and remittance inflows --The existence of large state bank branch networks with immense potential for a more effective and efficient remittance financial market. --The widespread usage of trade related informal remittance channels by both legal and illegal migrants. The book is intended for policymakers who legislate and regulate the financial sector, as well as for researchers and providers of remittance services.

Download or read book Migrant Remittance Flows written by Jacqueline Irving and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2010-03-26 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on the findings from responses to a survey conducted in 2008 09 from 114 central banks worldwide (of which 33 are in Africa), this paper aims to better understand how central banks and other national institutions regulate and collect data and other information on cross-border remittance flows. Findings indicate that, although the vast majority of countries, in both sending and receiving countries, collect data on remittances, and 43 percent of receiving countries estimate informal remittances, there is a need for more frequent and better coordinated data collection, both across national institutions and among different divisions within the same national institution, as well as between countries. Survey results also indicate that many new market entrants transfer activities are unregulated. Countries must take into account new channels and technologies, such as mobile phone service providers, in monitoring remittance flows. It will be important for national regulatory authorities to work closely with mobile telecoms network operators to strike the right regulatory balance, to better understand these new channels associated risks and fully tap their potential for fostering inexpensive, efficient remittance transfer services. The high cost of transfers was cited in the survey as the top factor inhibiting migrants from using formal channels. Many countries, particularly in Africa, have made progress in rendering exclusivity contracts illegal, which helps increase competitiveness and reduce transfer costs. But further policy reforms and initiatives are needed to address the high costs of remittances. The joint African Development Bank-World Bank Africa Migration Project and G-8 Global Remittances Working Group provided partial funding support for this study.

Download or read book Stages of Capital written by Ritu Birla and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-14 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Stages of Capital, Ritu Birla brings research on nonwestern capitalisms into conversation with postcolonial studies to illuminate the historical roots of India’s market society. Between 1870 and 1930, the British regime in India implemented a barrage of commercial and contract laws directed at the “free” circulation of capital, including measures regulating companies, income tax, charitable gifting, and pension funds, and procedures distinguishing gambling from speculation and futures trading. Birla argues that this understudied legal infrastructure institutionalized a new object of sovereign management, the market, and along with it, a colonial concept of the public. In jurisprudence, case law, and statutes, colonial market governance enforced an abstract vision of modern society as a public of exchanging, contracting actors free from the anachronistic constraints of indigenous culture. Birla reveals how the categories of public and private infiltrated colonial commercial law, establishing distinct worlds for economic and cultural practice. This bifurcation was especially apparent in legal dilemmas concerning indigenous or “vernacular” capitalists, crucial engines of credit and production that operated through networks of extended kinship. Focusing on the story of the Marwaris, a powerful business group renowned as a key sector of India’s capitalist class, Birla demonstrates how colonial law governed vernacular capitalists as rarefied cultural actors, so rendering them illegitimate as economic agents. Birla’s innovative attention to the negotiations between vernacular and colonial systems of valuation illustrates how kinship-based commercial groups asserted their legitimacy by challenging and inhabiting the public/private mapping. Highlighting the cultural politics of market governance, Stages of Capital is an unprecedented history of colonial commercial law, its legal fictions, and the formation of the modern economic subject in India.

Download or read book The U S Honduras Remittance Corridor written by Isaku Endo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2010-03-12 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper provides an overview of remittances and migration between Honduras and the United States and analyzes the remittance regulatory and market environment, including financial inclusion strategies, transnational economic activities, and the impact of remittances on the Honduran economy. 'The U.S.-Honduras Remittance Corridor' makes policy recommendations to the authorities of Honduras and the United States, especially for regulatory reforms that promote the integrity and efficiency of money transfer businesses. We also recommend the development of financial infrastructures in rural areas for better distribution of remittances. Furthermore, we suggest that public policy should be more focused on building an environment for investment in the community and developing local businesses that export to Honduran communities abroad.

Download or read book South south Migration and Remittances written by Dilip Ratha and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2007 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "South-South Migration and Remittances" reports on preliminary results from an ongoing effort to improve data on bilateral migration stocks. It sets out some working hypotheses on the determinants and socioeconomic implications of South-South migration. Contrary to popular perception that migration is mostly a South-North phenomenon, South-South migration is large. Available data from national censuses suggest that nearly half of the migrants from developing countries reside in other developing countries. Almost 80 percent of South-South migration takes place between countries with contiguous borders. Estimates of South-South remittances range from 9 to 30 percent of developing countries' remittance receipts in 2005. Although the impact of South-South migration on the income of migrants and natives is smaller than for South-North migration, small increases in income can have substantial welfare implications for the poor. The costs of South-South remittances are even higher than those of North-South remittances. These findings suggest that policymakers should pay attention to the complex challenges that developing countries face not only as countries of origin, but also as countries of destination.

Download or read book The UK Nigeria Remittance Corridor written by Raúl Hernández-Coss and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study is the first research work on remittances conducted in Nigeria and reveals the actual state of its remittance market. The report describes how United Kingdom residents of Nigerian origin transfer remittances home and how the funds are distributed to their beneficiaries in Nigeria. The review presents the remittance industry conditions existing in the UKNigeria remittance corridor at the origination and distribution stages of the transactions, and the intermediaries who facilitate the transfers. The report makes conclusions and compares these main findings with lessons from other corridors. The UK-Nigeria remittance corridor has an equal dominance of formal and informal remittance intermediaries. Although several formal financial institutions for transferring money exist in the UK, many people choose to send money informally. More collaboration between the UK and Nigeria is necessary to develop the remittance market, to encourage the use of formal channels, and to enhance the development potential. Among its benefits, the remittance country partnership (RCP) between UK and Nigeria aims to reduce the cost of remittance transfers. The Nigerian government is engaging its diaspora to help spur economic growth. This report recommends that each government focus on improving data collection at its end of the corridor and do more research to provide its policymakers and its private sector with accurate information.