The move comes just over a week after Citi launched a global remittance system previously supplied by money transfer outfit PayQuik, which the US bank acquired in January.

Bank of New York Mellon first entered the remittance space several years ago with an offering that enables non-US client banks to receive remittances from customers who had moved to the US and wanted to remit funds back home.

The new Remit Worldwide extends the service by enabling customers of client US banks to remit funds directly to beneficiaries overseas.

Bank of New York Mellon says the new platform enables client banks to cash in on the growing remittance market while avoiding the costs and complexities of developing a global remittance infrastructure.

"Largely because of technology and infrastructure constraints, US retail banks currently handle only a small percentage of global remittances," says Al Briand, MD and head of product management and business strategy at Bank of New York Mellon's treasury services group. "Remit Worldwide unlocks the global remittance door, allowing client banks in the US to capture a bigger share of this growing market without incurring undue technology risk or development expense."

Bank of New York Mellon and Citi are just two of a number of financial institutions that have sought to cash in on the remittance opportunity. In particular, a number of firms - including Visa, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and HSBC - have moved to tap into the Latin American money transfer business and have launched services aimed at the Hispanic community in the US.

Meanwhile, in a separate move, money transfer operator Western Union and MasterCard are working on separate projects with GSMA - an international trade group of mobile phone operators - to develop the commercial and technical specifications for global mobile remittance services.