Hawala and other informal networks are accounted for 40% of the remittances sent every year.[1] USD 534 billion were sent in 2012 via formal networks. Analyzin

Hawala and other informal networks are accounted for 40% of the remittances sent every year.[1] USD 534 billion were sent in 2012 via formal networks. Analyzing the remittances flow and their impact in the receiving countries (often more in term of %GDP than official intl development aid), it's a shame that the global average fee to "remit" is 9% and up to 12% while sending money towards Sub-Saharan Africa. [2] But that's a fast moving market with several technological and business model innovations (and some YC startups too. This last years, we have seen a lot of startups with interesting ideas based on new technologies or new business model to improve the remittances market: Azimo (http://azimo.com http://azimo.com), Xoom (https://www.xoom.com/ https://www.xoom.com/), Regalii (https://www.regalii.com/ https://www.regalii.com/ - send good instead of cash, YC), Transferwise (http://transferwise.com http://transferwise.com) and new technology like mobile banking (M-Pesa, MTNMMO) and bitcoin (buttercoin YC - http://buttercoin.com/ http://buttercoin.com/). Disclaimer: I work on TawiPay (http://tawipay.com http://tawipay.com) as a side-project, a comparison website for remittances services. [1] http://www.scribd.com/doc/150342765/Trends-in-Remittances-June-2013-The-Anthemis-Newsletter http://www.scribd.com/doc/150342765/Trends-in-Remittances-Ju... [2]https://remittanceprices.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/RemittancePriceWorldwide-Analysis-Mar2013.pdf https://remittanceprices.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/R...