The European Union's remittances market demonstrated a 15-percent growth, to exceed $135 billion in volume, the France-based international service provider Tempo Money Transfer reported.
In its market overview, the Paris-headquartered operator said that in spite of global economic turmoil, the demand for remittances has been on the rise.
“The segment’s main indicators are directly proportional to the gap between difference in life standards in different countries – including not only outside the EU, but also within the European Union,” said the president for Tempo, Mr. Jeffrey Phaneuf.
He also said that the second factor to largely influence the market, is the number of working migrants residing in the EU.
“We have noticed an interesting trend that also effects the market very much. The proportion of working migrants in the remittances demand structure has grown from 78 percent to nearly 85 percent [in the EU] within a one year period,” Mr. Phaneuf said, “It is a very large increase, demonstrating how fast the number of migrants in Europe is increasing.”
He said also that the ratio may grow even further in 2016, since the number of migrants keeps growing.”
The EU’s Top 5 segments remained the UK, Germany and France. These main donor countries generate $35 billion, $31 billion and $29 billion correspondently. These states are followed by Italy and Spain according to Tempo Money Transfer's reporting.
Top country recipients include Slovak Republic and Lithuania (over $2 billion per annum each), Romania and Czech Republic (nearly $3 billion each), and Poland with the highest inflow volume of over $7.6 billion.
“Speaking of the main corridors where money is sent” Mr. Phaneuf said that “some 35 percent of EU-generated transfers are sent to European countries (within EU and outside of EU), 33 percent – to Asia and over 20 percent to Africa. This balance has not changed much”, said the president for Tempo, “however it is very difficult to predict how the situation will change in 2016.”
He went on to say that Tempo’s experts expect the market growth rates to be even higher, by up to 20 percent this year.
“This is due to a serious increase in the number of economically active people moving to the EU.”
At the same time Mr. Phaneuf sees the market more competitive.
“It is becoming more and more competitive not only because of growing service standards, but also because service providers actively implement new options widening its product range, looking for new sales channels.
The new products include remote bill payments and topping up cell operators globally.
“We look at the 2016 EU remittances market very positively. It is going to be one of the most dynamic segments of the economy, while outbound EU transactions are going to increase their share in all other money transfer corridors,” he said about current year possibilities in the development of the market.
Tempo Money Transfer operates 180 locations being present in over 100 countries. One of the components in its mission, is to make rates more affordable to clients, and bring the funds into the regulated area, internationally.