Access to Banking: The De-Risking Issue

Earlier this year, The World Bank inserted itself into the crowd to understand how the entire reduced access to banking issue was playing out, especially for money transfer (i.e. remittance) companies. (See earlier article on this World Bank Survey)

See related articles on de-risking:

• Strangulation by Regulation.
• Can’t find MSB Friendly Banks? Go ahead, scream. No one is listening.
• The Sandstorm that is blanketing the operations of money transfer companies.

The World Bank decided to conduct a survey, aimed solely (and by invitation) to MTOs (Money Transfer Operators), MSBs (Money Services Businesses) and Payment Institutions (PIs).

The results are out (See Press Release here), and it is what was expected: The rate and magnitude of de-risking is concerning. The gist of the report can be summed up as follows:

The summary of the World Bank De-Risking Survey Report can be read here.

World Bank De-Risking Survey Reports

Report: Fact finding summary from de-risking surveys
Official Page | Report Download Link (PDF)

Report: Withdraw from correspondent banking : where, why, and what to do about it
Official Page | Report Download Link (PDF)

Report: Report on the G20 survey in de-risking activities in the remittance market
Official Page | Report Download Link (PDF)