A report from our partner Mastercard [1] indicates some interesting changes in consumer behaviour. They conducted research among 5,058 consumers from ten different markets who had sent and/or received money to and/or from another person who lives outside their country in the past year.
- Nearly a quarter (23%) of their consumer sample had both sent and received money in the past year, with most involved in cross-border payments every month.
- Those based in the Middle East (United Arab Emirates 71%; Saudi Arabia 69%) are more likely to send money abroad for any reason than respondents overall (46%). Those in South Africa (53%) and Mexico (53%) are more likely to receive it than our ten countries on average (31%).
What might this mean for your business?
Social change
The pandemic has changed the way we live and work. Figures suggest that 270 million people globally now no longer live and work in the country they were born in, an increase of 44% in under 30 years. As work practices change and there’s an increase in movement away from the static hours of working nine to five in one set workplace, so too does the habits of employees. They could remain in their roles, but not in their geographical location, leading to an increase in the need for cross-border payments.
Increased digital use
Digital-first behaviours which were created and secured during the global pandemic have led to an increased use of online banking and a shift towards contactless payments. Some people who previously did not engage with digital banking, picked up their devices and used them for banking for the first time. This will result in solutions such as multi-currency wallets and mobile FX seeing greater adoption as consumers start to travel again.
Innovations in tech
As the scale of international transactions increase exponentially, fintechs and financial institutions will have a crucial part to play in the innovation of products and solutions, ultimately delivering better services that increase the speed, efficiency and security of cross-border payments.
Find out more about delivering FX multicurrency to your customers via our payments platform Thredd Apex, or read more about the Future of FX and Borderless Payments.
Resources
[1] https://b2b.mastercard.com/news-and-insights/borderless-payments/borderless-payments-report
