Remittance fees: The tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg

There has been an incredible fixation by many institutions with the fees charged by the banks for the service of making the remittances. Yes, of course it is good that these fees become more competitive but it is almost laughable to think about all the resources used up in analyzing this very minor issue in an immigrant’s reality. Just the money spent on communicating by telephone with home or buying yourself over the border surpasses by far the sum of all the fees paid to the banks. Stop talking about the fees, and help the immigrants make more money with which they would happily pay even higher fees to the banks, if asked. Talk about shortsightedness!

That is what I said over and over while I was an ED at the World Bank; and that is what I wrote in my book Voice and Noise; and that is what I kept on saying thereafter in all the many conferences on remittances that I have assisted to… to the extent that it is now almost embarrassing.

Yet I still have to ask again: How many more millions in research, conferences and publications are the development institutions to waste on this really silly and minor aspect of the migration issue?

Please help the migrants make more money instead!