May 13, 2015
By Tomas Miller
By Tomas Miller and Maria Luisa Hayem
Headlines about international remittances—money sent by migrants to their countries of origin—often focus on amounts. In 2014, for example, remittances received in Latin America and the Caribbean managed to surpass the record high set in 2008, reaching $65.4 billion. But beyond their amount, remittances are an important tool for financial inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean. We at the Multilateral Investment Fund have been working on the issue of remittances for 13 years. In that time, we have seen significant progress on many fronts, including: reductions in the cost of sending payments; the use of technologies such as the Internet and mobile phones to facilitate sending and receiving; and more efficient distribution through the growing number of points of service for receiving remittances, such as agent banking.