Disrupting Remittances Forever

  The blogger is the Co-founder of Bayfikr ( www.bayfikr.net ) - a mobile platform giving expats and immigrants the ability to get home country VAS. He graduated with an MBA from London Business School and has been remitting money to Pakistan for the last 8 years. He is on a mission to change remittances forever.   A Dog’s breakfast is a British phrase used to describe a complete mess.   If you are reading this and live in a developed country, there is an 80% chance you own a smart phone, a 90% chance you have setup a direct debit for at least 1 bill payment and a 95% chance you use your smart phone for your banking needs, including P2P transfers. If you are a white-collared worker and remit money, 9/10 times you will use your banking or MTO app (Western Union, Transferwise etc.). If you are a blue-collared worker however, you will only use your phone 4/10 times to send money; even lower if you are in the GCC. No convenience, no control, utter confusion Imagine you...

            My first blog discussed the future of remittances. This second short read is part one of two. Part one, is about what motivates people to send money across borders. Next week, part two will focus on the ways in which people send money, why they want those methods to change and how Bayfikr will change it.   Behind every Dollar, Pound, Dirham, or Euro sent by individuals, to individuals, across borders lies two basic reasons: i) Love and ii) Responsibility. This is obvious. Many expats have family and friends back home who rely on them financially. They send money to them out of love. Other expats fulfil their responsibility by sending money to honour a commitment, settle a due or pay a bill. What is not so obvious however is that depending on which social strata you belong to, the reasons for sending money vary significantly. And this difference is remarkably similar across geographies based on a survey we carried...