What is a remittance?
Money transfers, or remittances, are person-to-person payments generally to family members living in an individual’s country of origin. Remittances are a large and growing global phenomenon. However, several important characteristics of the U.S. to Mexico remittance market make it an attractive business consideration for financial institutions. The amount of funds transferred into Mexico is the second largest in the world – only India receives more remittance funds. It is notable that almost all remittances to Mexico originate in one country – the U.S. – and are growing at a very fast annual rate. Remittances to Mexico topped $20 billion in 2005 and have experienced double-digit percentage growth for the past several years.
