World Bank Estimates 2006 Remittances to Reach $199 Billion

The World Bank's Development Prospects Group, Migration and Remittances Team put together an interesting brief that is useful to us on the IPM team and everyone involved in the world remittance market.

An interesting observation from the brief is the following quote:

"Recorded remittances sent home by migrants from developing countries are expected to reach $199 billion in 2006, up from $188 billion in 2005, and more than double the level in 2001."

The gigantic sums involved in world remittances are of interest to developing countries who, with the correct systems in place, can harness the power of remittance transactions to fund development at all levels of the economy and empower the "Base of the Pyramid" (BOP) to self fund and rise into a viable and productive class bringing prosperity to the entire country.

Remittances - United States to Latin America

According to a study conducted in October 2006 by Monetary Investment Fund/Fondo Multilateral de Inversiones (MIF/FOMIN) reveals some interesting dynamics of the U.S. to Latin America remittance market.

[The MIF/FOMIN] study indicates that 12.6 million Latin American immigrants living in the United States will send about $45 billion to their families in 2006.

• The percentage of immigrants sending money on a regular basis to their relatives has increased from 61 percent in 2004 to 73 percent in 2006.
• The average amount of each remittance sent from the U.S. has increased from $240 in2004 to $300 in 2006.
• The percentage of immigrants that use a bank or credit union to send remittances has increased from 8 percent in 2004 to 19 percent in 2006.

The size of this market cannot be ignored.

The large numbers of transactions and funds indicated in this survey allow participating firms to vastly increase the standard of living in recipient countries by leveraging existing trends without having to further access funds from overburdened governmental and non-governmental (NGO) organizations.

IPM is positioned to enable companies to participate and benefit from this market while benefiting remittance senders and receivers.

The Growing Remittance Market

The remittance market is growing around the world. In the United States, the remittance market is usually associated with the southwestern border states with Mexico.

As seen in the article published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, four of the top ten U.S. states where remittances originate are in the southeastern United States.

Banks are interested in building infrastructure and knowhow but there are still many gaps which IPM (International Personnel Management, LLC) is here to fill.

International Personnel Management and Remittance

International Personnel Management, LLC (IPM) is here to implement remittance transactions and stored value card transactions in Latin America, the Caribbean (LAC) and around the world.

Contact IPM for the expertise, contacts and solutions to take your concept to reality.

What is SWIFT?

SWIFT stands for "Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication."

In relation to international transactions and remittances, SWIFT is an electronic messaging network of banks (majority), depositories, securities broker-dealers and non-bank corporations. SWIFT was formed as a banking transactional messaging network but has grown and is growing into a network that can be used in addition to other systems for transfers relating to the international remittance market.

To know what SWIFT is and and how it works it is beneficial to reference an overall description of SWIFT at the 9to5andOtherwise.com site.

Click part 1 and part 2.

Base of the Pyramid

This is exactly why we at International Personnel Management, LLC are here. IPM is here to serve the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) for the betterment of all.

The following is an excerpt from the Multilateral Investment Fund site:

The Base of the Pyramid

The consumer market at the base of the pyramid (BOP) – approximately 350 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean region – represents an attractive yet underserved population for which private companies could develop new products and services. As developed economies constitute a continually smaller share of the global economy and become even more saturated, the related changes in worldwide consumption habits will represent significant opportunities for strategic private companies.

This is not about providing the same, existing products and services that have been developed for the top of the economic pyramid and simply marketed to the poor, but rather a new business approach that seeks to develop new products or services adapted to the needs of the BOP at an affordable price.

Migration Phenomenon Beyond the United States

There are immigration trends throughout the Americas beyond the immigration of Mexicans to the United States.

According to a study* conducted by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), "there are now significant communities of Bolivian migrants in Argentina, Nicaraguan migrants in Costa Rica, Guatemalans in Mexico, Peruvians in Chile, and Haitians in the Dominican Republic."

The MIF was formed to fund projects that stimulate the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean. There are numerous transactional opportunities beyond the United States/Mexico market.

*study titled Sending Money Home; Remittances as a Development Tool in Latin America and the Caribbean

The Need for Banking the "Unbankable"

In our increasingly digital world there are many people who need a credit or debit card of some sort to participate in or do business. Most hotels now will not permit someone to stay as a guest unless they have some sort of bank card for the hotel to scan.

Gone are the days of having a tab at a local merchant. Merchants demand and customers need an instant method for conducting business transactions.

Another use for debit and stored value cards is to permit people to essentially carry a bank account in their wallet. Employers now have the option of direct depositing pay checks directly to the employee's card. Stored value cards now actually have a bank routing number in addition to the account number so that money can be wired to the card.

Money can also be transfered by the cardholder from one card to another card anywhere in the world. One can see the potential for unbanked immigrants in many countries around the world sending money back to their home countries. These card-to-card transactions are much less expensive to the user than using older methods such as wiring money through Western Union.

Welcome to International Personnel Management

This is a project which has limitless potential.