The Bank of New York Mellons Treasury Services group has launched Remit Worldwide, an enhanced white-label product that will enable client US retail banks to facilitate worldwide remittances, a banking service with significant growth potential in terms of both revenue and customer relationships.
Remittances are cross-border, low-value transfers of money from persons in one country to family and friends in another. Estimated by The World Bank to exceed $300 billion on an annual, worldwide basis, remittancesrepresent an important growth opportunity for retail banks.
The Bank of New York Mellon first entered the remittance space severalyears ago with an offering that enabled non-US client banks to receive remittances from customers who had moved to the US and wanted to remit funds back home. Remit Worldwide has been enhanced to offer an even more robust white-label application, enabling customers of client U.S. banks to remit funds directly to beneficiaries overseas.
“Largely because of technology and infrastructure constraints, US retail banks currently handle only a small percentage of global remittances. Remit Worldwide unlocks the global remittance door, allowing client banks in the U.S. to capture a bigger share of this growing market without incurring undue technology risk or development expense,” says Al Briand, managing director and head of product management and business strategy with The Bank of New York Mellons Treasury Services group.
“Our white-label global remittance solution delivers a double benefit for our US client banks. Offering remittances services gives our client banks access to a new revenue source. And because this is a newarea of service delivery for most banks, our remittance solution also gives our client banks opportunities to attract new customers and broaden existing customer relationships,” adds Michael Bellacosa, vice president, Payment Services with The Bank of New York Mellons Treasury Services group.