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In Malaysia, Indonesian migrants are showing an increasingly clear preference for informal transfer mechanisms compared to their counterparts in other countries. A little less than half of all Indonesian migrants overseas—thought to be around 2 million—are working in Malaysia. An increasing number of migrants are women, and the corridor is also marked by a high number of undocumented migrants. Despite the increasing flows of migrants, only about 10 percent of the estimated flow of remittances into Indonesia from Malaysia is transferred through the formal system. The extent of the preference for the informal sector is unique in this corridor. Indonesian migrants in other countries are using the formal sector far more than the migrants in Malaysia. In addition, Indonesian women and undocumented migrants in Malaysia especially find formal sector transfers either hard to access or inappropriate for their needs. To this end, the study assists policymakers’ efforts to increase the impact of remittances on economic development and poverty reduction in Indonesia and to investigate options for attracting more migrants to use the formal financial sector. The report provides a descriptive overview of the Malaysia–Indonesia remittance corridor and suggests policy avenues for improving access to formal remittance transfer channels; increasing the transparency of the flows and the cost structure; and facilitating remittance transfers, particularly for undocumented and female migrant workers.

Terrorism can endanger innocent human life and tear the very threads that hold society together, namely, trust and security. Governments have mobilized a variety of tools in response, ranging from the political to the economic. In attempting to prevent and detect terrorist financing and other forms of material support, those offering financial services have been required to heighten their vigilance of potential terrorist abuse of those services. While protecting financial services from potential abuse, care should be taken not to deny access to those services to those most in need. Dejection and social exclusion are very often conducive to terrorism; therefore, ensuring inclusion of the disenfranchised and creating possibilities for their advancement are key parts of the broader, long-term struggle against terrorism and extremism. The paper begins with a brief description of alternative remittance system (ARS) models and their prevalence. It then covers their potential relationship with terrorist financing, citing cases where ARS have been abused for terrorism financing (TF) purposes. Ways in which countries may control these risks and indications of their effectiveness are covered next. The final chapter provides recommendations on how best to mitigate the risks while ensuring legitimate access to financial services via ARS.

Several economies in the Caribbean region, especially from the lower income group, are highly dependent on remittances. Between 1991 and 2006, the combined flows of total remittances reaching the Caribbean have seen almost a 17% average annual growth rate, surpassing USD 6billion in 2005 and overtaking ODA and FDI into the region. In addition, remittances represent more than 20% of the domestic gross domestic product (GDP) in some Caribbean countries and have played a significant role in lessening both balance of payment deficits and the impact of natural disasters to which the region is particularly vulnerable. Given the importance of such remittance flows, this study undertakes an analysis of the various dynamics underlying the Canada-Caribbean remittance corridor, including Caribbean migration issues, remittance market landscapes and regulatory frameworks. This study is intended to assist Canadian and Caribbean national authorities in their mandate of providing incentives for the continued growth and competitiveness of their remittance industries, while protecting remittance markets from being abused by criminals.

This report on the U.S.- Honduras remittance corridor describes the remittance regulatory and market environment, financial inclusion strategies by financial institutions, transnational economic activities, and the impacts of remittances on the Honduran economy. Six areas provide the focus of this report: (i) regulatory reforms for the remittance market are urgent in order to improve clarity in regulations as well as to include money transfer companies in the regulatory framework; (ii) money service businesses will benefit from an examination of state regulation and their subsequent harmonization and coordination; (iii) rural areas need to improve distributive infrastructure to better reap the benefits of the remittance flows; (iv) financial education and awareness for Honduran migrant communities are critical components with the overall remittance flow equation; (v) the regulatory environment of remittance flows would be greatly enhanced through the promotion, inclusion, and expansion of proper identification; and (vi) public policies can be directed to building an environment for diaspora investments in the community and local business developments for exports to Honduran communities abroad.

This study reports on recent development and future potential for U.S.-based Guatemalan workers cross-border retail transfers to be more formal, cheaper, and disposed to the cross-sale of financial products and services. It also presents the key features of remittances senders, recipients, instruments, and intermediaries involved. The paper focuses on three areas: (a) the main characteristics of the Guatemalan migrants in the United States and the key drivers behind their decision to remit money and to choose an intermediary; (b) financial infrastructure supporting U.S.-Guatemala remittances processing, especially the role of technology, payment systems and innovations going forward, as avenues to help lower transaction costs, among others; and (c) the landscape of workers remittances distribution in Guatemala, examines the characteristics of recipients and the evidence of remittances impact, and analyzes the indications of potential for cross-sale of financial services to recipients.

Serbia has become one of the largest remittance-recipient countries in the world. It is estimated that in 2004 Serbia received US2.4 billion dollars in remittances from Serbian workers in Germany, the United States, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and other countries. This amount represented 12 percent of Serbia’s GDP. This report provides an overview of remittance flows from Germany to Serbia and analyzes why a large part of remittance transfers take place outside financial institutions. The study presents a series of recommendations on needed policy changes to facilitate the transfer of remittance flows from the informal channels to licensed or registered financial institutions, thereby maximizing the developmental impact of remittances, reducing remittances fees, improving data collection practices, and strengthening the regulation and supervision of themoney transfer industry.

Remittance inflows play a crucial role in Nepal's economy. Officially recorded remittances already amounted to almost a quarter of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2009. The 2008-09 global economic crises resulted in slower growth of remittance inflows in Nepal, leading directly to lower disposable income. This is a telling reminder of the importance of promoting a supportive environment for remittances. Nepali migration continues to increase as workers seek greater economic opportunities abroad. In this quest, Qatar is one of the important migration destinations for Nepali migrant workers. This report analyzes the migration and remittance transfer processes in the Qatar-Nepal Corridor in order to provide policy recommendations that would help improve the scale and impact of remittance transfers from Qatar to Nepal, and enhance the efficiency and integrity of migration and remittances in the corridor. The report identifies challenges in the migration process from Nepal to Qatar (related to high migration costs and their financing) and constraints in the remittance transfer process from Qatar to Nepal, which together limit the development and poverty reduction impact of remittance flows to Nepali households. As this report highlights, the Qatar-Nepal remittance corridor has several distinctive features. First, the majority of remittance flows from Qatar to Nepal are being transferred through officially regulated remittance channels. One of the reasons for this is actually the second feature of this corridor, namely, the officially managed migration process from Nepal to Qatar (as a result of which the majority of migrants are documented workers). The third feature is the contrast between the high competition and low prices of remittance services in this corridor on the one hand, and the contradictory rules and high costs incurred during the migration process on the other hand. Finally, as a by-product of the complex migration process which involves multiple players, financial transfers through informal mechanisms take place from Nepal to Qatar in order to pay the commissions of manpower agencies and middlemen.

The paper seeks to assess the macroeconomic implications of large-scale inward remittances for a small open economy. By including remittances in several standard models, the paper concludes that the overall macroeconomic impact of remittances is likely to be ambiguous. The impact depends on the structural characteristics of the receiving country, in particular its consumption and investment patterns, and its capacity to manage large financial inflows. As data deficiencies and methodological problems associated with remittances preclude crosscountry empirical investigation, the paper illustrates these findings with data on Tajikistan, where remittances as a share of GDP are among the highest in the world. The paper also evaluates the pros and cons of remittances in a broader political economy context.

This survey was conducted by the World Bank Payment Systems Development Group, at the request of the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic, as a follow up to the World Bank-led mission that visited the country in 2008 to assess the market for remittances. This survey aims at analyzing the main characteristics of the market for remittances in the Czech Republic and should serve as a guide for both public authorities and the private sector in identifying possible actions to improve the efficiency of the market. A total of 880 migrants from eight different nationalities were interviewed during the summer of 2009 in Prague. The nationalities selected represent the largest and most important migrant communities in the country: China, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, the Russian Federation, the Slovak Republic, Ukraine, and Vietnam. The following main findings can be extracted from the analysis of the survey's outcomes: i) a low level of transparency and consumer protection can be observed in the market for remittances in the Czech Republic. Senders are often not provided with all the relevant information by the Remittance Service Provider (RSP) at the moment of the transaction; ii) the lack of transparency is confirmed by the analysis of the cost as perceived by the interviewees, who do not generally consider the margin applied by the RSP as a price component. As a result, remittance senders are in general not aware of the actual cost that they are paying for the service; and iii) the market is dominated by Money Transfer Operators (MTOs) and, in particular, some MTOs hold the great majority of the market shares.

This paper uses a stochastic dynamic general equilibrium model to investigate the influence of countercyclical remittances on the conduct of fiscal and monetary policy and trace their effects on real and nominal variables in a business cycle setting. We show that remittances raise disposable income and consumption, and insure against income shocks, thereby raising household welfare. However, remittances increase the correlation between labor and output, thereby producing a more volatile business cycle and increasing output and labor market risk. Optimal monetary policy in the presence of remittances deviates from the Friedman rule, highlighting the need for independent government policy instruments.