Among key findings, the report reveals that money transmitters Western Union and MoneyGram are coming out of the past two
years stronger than ever in comparison to other MTOs. While tier-three and tier-four MTOs are trapped in a vicious cycle of paying higher commissions to retain
independent agents' business, the leading brands have remained somewhat insulated.
The report finds that MTOs' core business model, which is built around an agent network, remains very strong. Emerging channels are not currently
a disruptive force to their business model. Even the Internet remains a very small send channel globally. As for cross-border mobile money transfers, they face
considerable hurdles, of which regulatory issues are not the least.
"Emerging channels are grossly over-hyped issues for the industry," says
Gwenn Bézard, research director with Aite Group and author of the report. "Other issues should be top of mind for leading MTOs, including the fact that banks
are slowly but steadily gaining market share on the send side of the money transfer business. To side-step that threat, leading MTOs will need to make winning U.S. banks
as agents their number one strategic priority for the foreseeable future."
The report mentions the following players: Adobe, BNY Mellon, Citigroup, Coinstar, DolEx (Global Payments), Earthport, eClearing, Euronet, Globe Telecom, Grupo Express, Home Depot,
ICICI Bank, iSend, iKobo, Incomm, Intermex, La Nacional, Lloyds Banking Group, MasterCard, MoneyGram, Money2India.com, Nexxo Financial, Obopay, Omnex, PayPal, Philippines National Bank, Pronto Envios,
Remesas Quisqueyana, Remit2India.com, Safaricom, Sigue, Smart Communications, Standard Chartered Bank, Transfast, UAE Exchange, US Bank, Uniteller, Viamericas, Visa, Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo, Western
Union and Xoom.
This 60-page Impact Report contains 41 figures and two tables. Clients of Aite Group's Retail Banking service can download the report by clicking on the icon
to the right. 
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