Remittances Market in the Netherlands

This paper focuses on remittances made to African countries. This is because remittances to sub-Saharan Africa are still the most expensive due to issues related to efficiency, competition, innovation, and compliance in both sending and receiving countries. Compared to other European countries, the Netherlands is advanced in cashless payments reducing its urgency to agree on common standards for mobile payments. The Netherlands therefore runs the risk of becoming a country with comparatively high remittances prices in the future. Following an intensive period of research involving interviews, gathering primary and secondary data and studying them, the paper makes the following recommendations:

• Dutch government can concentrate on financial infrastructure in migrants' countries of origin through development cooperation. This could lead to a broader use of formal transfer channels and a reduction of the costs of remittances;
• Regulators should support international discussions on transnational approaches towards a balanced regulatory framework that weighs perceived risks with the burden of compliance;
• Dutch banks could increase their share in the remittance market, if they came up with innovative products which address the increasingly transnational needs of circular migrants who simultaneously build up an existence 'there and here.'