Globally, more than $580 billion is remitted by migrants to their home countries, 75 percent to developing countries.
Alibaba Group’s acquisition of MoneyGram — the second-largest money transfer service worldwide — may help bring the expensive transfers world into the era of mobile and online money.
The acquisition gives Alibaba’s online payments processor, Ant Financial, access to MoneyGram’s 200-plus international markets.
Ant Financial is known for its smartphone app One, and online payment service AliPay, which processes 58 percent of China’s online payments.
Fees are high in the remittance world, averaging 7.4 percent on each transaction.
Photo credit: Techinasia.com
