WorldRemit Seeks Mobile Messaging Money Transfer Partners

In the remittance arena, free chat and calling apps are in the midst of transferring how migrant workers are transferring funds. In a Friday (Nov. 6) article, Reuters spotlighted how WorldRemit, an online player in the field, is forging partnerships to benefit from the shifts.

In an interview with the newswire, Ismail Ahmed, the company’s CEO, said that he has been in conversation with firms that include WhatsApp and Skype, among others, in an initiative to smooth the flow of global remittances. WorldRemit, which is based in the United Kingdom, says it is also in talks with other messaging firms.

“Partnerships with messaging apps are coming next year,” Ahmed told Reuters in an interview at Web Summit, Europe’s largest annual Internet conference.

Ahmed told Reuters that his firm is on pace to process as much as $1 billion in transactions in 2015, with revenue on track to double from last year. And business should pick up upon having received regulatory approval from the state of California to enter the United States beginning later this month. That helps momentum with remittances that come from migrants sending money to both Latin America and the Philippines.

[bctt tweet=”The advent of mobile remittances means that money transfers of as little as $20 are becoming frequent.”]

The advent of mobile remittances means that money transfers of as little as $20 are becoming frequent, said Ahmed, whereas such activity might be a monthly event for some workers. As Reuters reported, consolidation has come in the wake of new technology that has leveled the playing field against relatively high commission fees in an industry that has been marked at as much as $440 billion annually. Among the marquee acquisitions within the industry has been PayPal’s buy of Xoom this past summer for nearly $900 million.

Yet, Ahmed told Reuters, his own company has not been talking in terms of acquisitions — yet.

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