UAE-based newspaper The National writes about how remittance providers in 2021 “increasingly offered digital apps and partnered with FinTechs to cater to customers’ changing preferences amid the pandemic.”
They say in Gulf nations, recovery of outward remittances was “boosted by stronger oil prices and the resulting pickup in economic activity.”
They add that outward personal remittances from the UAE increased 8.7 percent, or Dh3.6bn a year, in the second quarter of 2021, according to the UAE Central Bank. Outward remittances through banks rose by Dh6.1bn while transfers through exchange houses dropped by Dh2.5bn.
The newspaper interestingly notes that although many remittance providers reported exponential growth in money transfers through mobile apps last year, “an overwhelming majority of money flows remitted from the UAE are still sent from physical branches.”
“We believe that growth in the brick-and-mortar model will continue till 2023 and only digital will continue to have substantial growth going ahead,” they quote Rajiv Raipancholia, chief executive of Orient Exchange, as saying.
