How immigrants are driving digital transformation of U.S. remittances
Thursday, March 8, 2018
By Penny Crosman
WorldRemit, a remittance payment provider whose mobile app is already used by 2 million migrants to send money home to family and friends, entered the NY market last week, one of its most critical states. It has nearly full coverage of the U.S. market, which it expects to become its largest by yearend.
Its forecast is for 10 million customers by 2020.
The move says a lot about U.S. immigrants’ changing preferences for digital rather than cash payments.
There are about 43.7 million immigrants in the United States, and remittances sent from here by foreign-born immigrants rose to $66 billion from $50 billion over the past five years, according to the World Bank.
In New York state, where WorldRemit just won a money transmitter license, there are 4.5 million immigrants. One in five people living in the state is an immigrant, while one in six is a native-born U.S. citizen with at least one immigrant parent.
Photo courtesy of Steven Depolo.
Source: American Banker (link opens in a new window)
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