Alternative remittance systems

The impact of remittance income on household well being depends on who controls remittance income and how it is spent.

There are different approaches to the problem, particularly between remittance source States and remittance receiving States.

Harnessing the Remittance Boom

SR VI. Alternative remittance

Alternative informal remittance systems

As half of remittance senders and the majority of remittance recipients, women were playing a central role in managing and distributing such income.

E. Alternative informal remittance systems

There are no alternate remittance systems.

(c) In order to address the concerns of remittance receiving States, registered alternative remittance systems should be obliged to settle balances through normal banking channels

The remittance flow continues to be buoyant.

Furthermore, remittance levels are double those of official development assistance (ODA).

The remittance system of Hawala does not obtain in this jurisdiction.

Has this name been circulated to alternative remittance systems?

I'm sorry, without an I.D. you cannot receive a remittance.

alternative remittance systems are difficult to licence or to supervise.

Other forms of alternative remittance system, such as hundi or hawala, could be discussed here.

One State has recorded some success in encouraging the voluntary registration of alternative remittance systems.

Table 3 Private remittance flows to Africa, 1998 2003 (In billions of United States dollars)a

Hurdles in converting informal remittance systems to formal systems through registration or licensing

The regulatory authorities of some States have initiated programmes to detect unregistered or unlicensed alternative remittance activity.

The Team makes no distinction between alternative and informal remittance systems for the purposes of this report.

(d) African authorities should view capital and remittance flows as an important part of their national economic statistics.

Alternative remittance systems are known by many terms, but all share the same operational characteristics.

It is not thought that licensing alone would prevent alternative remittance systems being used by terrorists.

Many States may therefore need to amend their laws to bring informal remittance systems under regulation.

No money remittance agencies are operating outside the banks (see the answer to the question 1.6).

For example, in commodity dependent and resource strapped Lesotho, remittance receipts represented about 27 per cent of GDP in 2001.

Although few States in their 1,455 reports acknowledged the existence of unregulated remittance systems within their jurisdiction, they are widespread.

Some States have initiated registration or licensing regimes for alternative remittance systems, or plan to do so.

Improve Australia's terrorism financing regime through strengthening criminalisation of the financing of terrorism, ensuring coverage of alternative remittance dealers, wire transfers and cash couriers.

Law no 48 of June 26 2003 published in Official Gazette no 24831 of June 26 2003 regulates the operations of money remittance companies.

Please indicate the laws and procedures available to regulate alternative remittance systems, including systems of, or similar to, the kind known as hawala.

Lisa C. Carroll, Alternative remittance systems distinguishing sub systems of ethnic money laundering in Interpol member countries on the Asian continent , Interpol, 2003.

The CTC would appreciate receiving the number of money remittance agencies transfer services registered and or licensed in the Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.

According to the Law on the System of Payments, the activity of money remittance transfer services is illegal if they are not licensed by the Central Bank.

Sub paragraph 1 (d) of the Resolution requires States to have legal measures in place to regulate alternative money remittance agencies transfer services and informal banking networks.

Two of those cases one filed by a charity, Benevolence International Foundation, and the other by money remittance firms and a related individual were dismissed years ago.

The principal remittance receiving States appear to prefer a soft, incentive based approach meant to improve public accessibility to the formal banking systems.

Recognizing that remittance flows constitute sources of private capital and that remittances have increased over time, complement domestic savings and are instrumental in improving the well being of recipients,

Recognizing also that remittance flows constitute one of the important aspects of international migration and that they particularly benefit the households of migrants and could impact the economies of recipient countries,

Last year, the last remittance measure before 8.11 exchange reform was carried out in 2005. The appreciation of yuan against dollar was significant during the last 10 years.

Many small developing countries also receive remittance flows that are significant as a share of GDP or in per capita terms Lebanon, Lesotho, Tajikistan and Tonga are examples.

Rajesh Ranjan, Assistant Director of Interpol's Financial and High Tech Crime Sub Directorate, and an expert on alternative remittance systems, told the Monitoring Team that he is of this view.

An additional payment was released when the partner had justified the use of the funds (at least 70 per cent of previous instalments) through the remittance of a subproject monitoring report.