
New service
Online payments company Skrill is launching a new service – Skrill iT – that can cut money transfer fees in half, allowing hundreds of millions of expatriates to send more money home.
Available in over 200 countries for senders and receivers, Skrill iT brings the power of the Internet to money transfer. With just a few clicks, money can be sent securely to people in 40 currencies, using just an email address. That money is received instantly and can then be transferred to a bank account, or withdrawn from more than 1.9 million ATMs worldwide using the Skrill Prepaid MasterCard.
Today there are 215 million people living outside their country of birth. The World Bank has estimated that the global remittance market will be worth USD608bn by 2014, with USD468bn flowing to developing countries. At the same time, the World Bank has set a challenge for global money transfer costs, which currently average 9%, to be reduced.
According to Jonathan Wood, VP of Electronic Remittances, “Money transfer represents a crucial lifeline for millions. Yet until now, the process has been more reminiscent of the previous century, and not the current digital age.
“At Skrill we didn’t find that acceptable. Why would you want to have some of the money you are sending loved ones eaten up by expensive fees? We’ve served more than 35 million customers in our decade in the online payments industry, and we’ve used this experience to create something completely new, that is easier to use, faster and more importantly which delivers more of your funds for less.
“Skrill iT significantly cuts the current cost of money transfer. Skrill iT means customers can send money instantly and globally for just 1% (capped at a EUR10 maximum fee) plus a FX fee ranging from 2.99 for the major currencies through to no more than 4.99% for even the smallest of currencies. As a result, fees are cut by up to half compared to the current average of 9%. Simply put, more now arrives when you Skrill iT.”
Whitepapers
Related reading
Central banks best suited to issue digital currencies
By Aaran Fronda A recent report by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) said that central banks rather than private ... read more
Instant payments: innovations inbound for corporates
In 2020, instant payments look set to continue their current trajectory to become the biggest trend in payments. While these schemes already offer numerous benefits to corporates, leveraging innovations such as APIs and request to pay will go some way to unlocking their full potential, argues Michael Knetsch
Obstacles exist for banks to meet ECB’s instant payments goal
The cost of joining instant payment platforms will be one of many hurdles banks and payment services providers must overcome to meet ... read more
Banks must be aware of “biases” in data used to train ML models
Financial institutions need to be conscious of biases in the historical data that is being used to train machine learning (ML) models, ... read more