Follow The Money

The UAE is a robust remittance market, the third largest in the world. MoneyGram CEO Alexander Holmes and chief revenue officer Grant Lines explain why they’re bullish about the growth prospects in the region

- Varun Godinho

According to a report by the World Bank, $689bn was remitted globally in 2018. While India was the largest receive market, pulling in $79bn, China and Mexico followed, netting $67bn and $36bn respectively. That report though didn’t fully paint a picture of the changing relationship between traditional send and receive markets. “Sends from countries like Romania, Guatemala and Honduras didn’t even exist four to five years ago. Romania was historically a huge receive market, but suddenly it has become one of our largest growing send markets in Europe. In Latin America, Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala were nothing but receive markets, but money is now moving back to the US as people who migrated there many years ago have settled down,” explains Alexander Holmes, chairman and CEO of MoneyGram International, the second-biggest money transfer company in the world.

The Middle East is a pivotal remittance region. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are the world’s second and third largest outbound markets respectively. According to the UAE Central Bank, remittances from the country grew 3 per cent in 2018 to total $46.07bn.

“The UAE government has been very proactive in encouraging choice and convenience, as well as physical and digital access to remit money. The government has the concept of a sandbox to encourage Fintech,” says Grant Lines, chief revenue officer at Money- Gram, outlining why the remittance market is on the up in the UAE.