Your site for international money transfer comparison news and views for individuals and businesses
The Chinese government is determined to prevent its entrepreneurs from moving large sums of money out of the country, to try to encourage them to reinvest their profits back into the domestic economy.
The strategy, however, is proving tough to enforce, and doesn’t always succeed in promoting Chinese interests abroad, it seems. Read more “Government Credit Controls Are Preventing Chinese Firms From Investing In Tech Startups”
Many people consider the blockchain, and the crypto economy, to be the future of the financial industry. The ability to log transactions in a decentralised manner, i.e. without the requirement for a third party regulator, with transactions verified by a network of “miners”, has unleashed a new wave of financial services products built on the blockchain. Read more “5 Blockchain Apps That Offer Money Transfer Services For Crypto & Fiat Currencies”
Last year, Sainsbury’s bank moved into the money transfer space, announcing a partnership with MoneyCorp that will allow their customers to transfer up to £100,000 overseas, either online or over the telephone.
In the process of setting up the partnership, Sainsbury’s uncovered some interesting facts about why Brits might want to make international payments. Read more “Sainsbury’s Bank Partners With MoneyCorp, Reveals Reasons Why Brits Send Money Overseas”
Cryptocurrencies may have got off to a bad start in 2018, with valuations plummeting, but faith in its underlying technology, the blockchain, or distributed ledger technology, has never been stronger. Read more “The Rise & Rise Of Blockchain Based Payments Solution Ripple”
Do banks provide international money transfer services free of charge?
Sadly, it’s not the case; banks are generally recognised as one of the most expensive options when it comes to moving money internationally; second only to using cash, according to the World Bank’s Data. Read more “TransferWise Research Reveals Australians Making Wrong Choices When It Comes To Transferring Money Overseas”
To say the mobile payments and money transfer industry in India is crowded is the understatement of the year. Paytm, Facebook, Tencent, through the Hike app, and a thousand other disruptive services are jostling for position in a mobile friendly market, with Whatsapp set to join the battle after soft launching their new payments service earlier this month. Read more “Google Tez Launches Bill Payments Service To Spice Up Mobile Disruption In India”
President Trump’s tax reforms have paved the way for some of America’s biggest companies to start moving the enormous piles of cash they have been storing overseas back into the country.
Firms like Cisco, which announced last week that it plans to repatriate around $67 billion in foreign profits during 2018, and Apple, which intends to bring back hundreds of billions of dollars, are taking advantage of Trump’s tax reforms, which have slashed the cost of paying tax on accumulated foreign income to just 15.5% for cash, payable over 8 years. Read more “Why Are US Corporate Giants Moving $3.1 Trillion of Assets Held Overseas Back Onshore?”
The way that we send money abroad has changed almost beyond recognition recently, with the emergence of money transfer apps, instant transfer platforms, and even wearable technologies, that can arrange transfers in a matter of a few swipes.
Although this tech disruption has made the money transfer industry a much better market for consumers, it can still be confusing to navigate through all the noise, and find the best deals. Read more “How To Compare The Best Money Transfer Services”
Mobile to mobile money transfer is currently the biggest trend in payments. Facebook Messenger Pay has been available for more than 2 years in the US, and finally crossed the Atlantic, launching in the UK and France, in late November last year. Now it’s the turn of Facebook-owned Whatsapp. Read more “Whatsapp Pay Rumours Confirmed By Soft Launch In India?”
Bitcoin may be seen in some quarters as the answer to too much bureaucracy, red tape, and creaking, antiquated, legacy banking systems, but it can’t escape being regulated, according to IMF chief Christine Lagarde, who gave an interview to CNN Money last week. Read more “IMF Chief Christine Lagarde Weighs In On Crypto Regulation Debate”
Singapore and Silicon Valley are arguably the fintech industry’s two geographical titans. Both are renowned for the ability of their supremely well educated and entrepreneurial populations to become early adopters of new technologies and commercial trends, and successfully turn them into globally dominant enterprises.
In Silicon Valley’s case it tends to be technologically advanced and trendsetting media and social media companies that rule the roost, whilst in Singapore, financial acumen, international trade, notably shipping, and now, financial technology are the industries that have helped to make one in every twenty of the City state’s citizens a millionaire, if reports are to be believed. Read more “Silicon Valley’s Hash Cash & Singapore’s United Overseas Bank Join Forces For Blockchain Based Remittance Service”
When it comes to mobile wallets, and indeed most things instant payments related, Africa tends to be ahead of the game.
During the 80’s and 90’s, much of the continent missed out on the desktop PC revolution, and in the 90’s, internet penetration across the region was negligible. Since then, however, the pendulum has swung very much in Africa’s favour, and especially so in the last decade. Read more “Ecobank Launches Xpress Account In Nigeria To Put Banking, Literally, At Users “Fingertips””
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney announced today that the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee have voted unanimously to hold interest rates at 0.5%, before warning; don’t be surprised if we raise them twice before the year is out.
Carney and the BoE are battling rising inflation, which has fallen 0.1%, to 3% from November to December. It’s not enough, they say, and have now set a target of bringing the level down below 2% within 2 years, as opposed to the 3 year timeframe that had previously been indicated. Read more “The Role Of Import, Export & Exchange Rates On BoE’s Interest Rate Decision, & What It Means For The Rest Of 2018”
Remittance Prices Worldwide (RPW) is an organisation, affiliated to the World Bank, that monitors the costs incurred by those sending money abroad, across all of the world’s major remittance corridors.
Since 2009, when the average global cost of sending money anywhere in the world was calculated at a high of 9.67% of the total amount sent, the figure has been in steady decline, and the good news is that the latest figure, for Q4 2017, records another decrease in price, from 7.21% in Q3 ‘17, to 7.09%. Read more “World Bank Figures Reveals Falling Average Worldwide Cost Of Remittances”
Only the United States ($56.3 billion), Saudi Arabia ($36.9bn) and Russia ($32.6bn) sends more money abroad than Dubai’s total of $19 billion, according to the World Bank, so it is no surprise that money transfer firms are scrambling to grab a slice of the action there.
MoneyCorp have stolen a march on their competitors by announcing last week the acquisition of First Rate FX, for an undisclosed fee. First Rate FX have an office in Dubai, which will be rebranded under the MoneyCorp name, and First Rate will also relocate from their Canary Wharf headquarters in London to MoneyCorp HQ in Victoria. Read more “MoneyCorp Completes Acquisition of First Rate FX To Tap Into Dubai Money Transfer Market”
From mobile wallet, launched in 2014, to fully fledged bank in 2018, Paytm’s rise from fintech startup to 13,000 employees and 3 million plus offline merchants in India has been a phenomenal one; a case of right place, right time, right backers.
PayTM, which stands for Payment Through Mobile, was spun out of parent company One97 Communications Ltd back in 2010. The company was inspired by a visit founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma (pictured) took to China, where he discovered that market stall traders were using their mobiles to accept and make payments, and concluded the model could work in India, also. Read more “No Fear. No Greed. No Entitlement. Paytm, India’s “Most Sincere” Bank, Lead’s India’s Fintech Charge”