Remittances have always been extremely important to a certain segment of the economy and the process has been dominated by going to a local store to send the money home; while digital remittances have accelerated in recent years the current crisis has dramatically reshaped the market; companies like Western Union, MoneyGram, WorldRemit, Remitly and TransferWise have all seen big growth since the onset of the pandemic; the companies are also asking the the same question, will the behavior last after the crisis subsides; Western Union has seen digital transactions account for 32 percent of their consumer business in April and MoneyGram reported digital transactions rose to 28 percent; WorldRemit saw 150 percent year on year growth in customer activations for March and April; Remitly and Azimo both saw 100 percent growth in customer additions month on month; receiving the money is the other side of the equation and that is still predominantly done with a cash pickup, though some markets are seeing changes; like many of the current trends in finance remittances might be seeing a long term shift in how the process is done, though some leading players are better positioned than others. Forbes
