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Migrant workers sent more than $280 billion home to developing countries in 2008, estimates the World Bank. The GSM Association, a large mobile operator trade group, is eager to help its members tap in on the flows. But the global economic downturn is gutting growth in remittances, which likely will hinder telecommunication companies' plans to convince migrant workers to use their phones to send funds home to family and friends instead of the low-tech methods they use now. "The workers that are traveling overseas are losing their jobs," M. Leland Dill, senior vice president and head of digital ventures for The Western Union Co., said this week at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. "People are going to be saving more sending less, (but) trying to maintain communication with their families." Western Union has been a part of the GSM Association's Mobile Money Transfer program since 2007, the year the association launched it. The association this week endorsed several more companies, including Visa Inc. and its European affiliate, to provide remittance services to operators. The Royal Bank of Scotland Group also got the endorsement of the GSM Association, along with Belgium-based roaming-service provider Belgacom International Carrier Services. Remittances workers sent to developing countries grew by nearly 16% in 2007. But the World Bank estimates growth in remittance value slowed to 6.8% in 2008, to $283 billion from $265 billion. It projects remittances will fall by nearly 1% this year.
