Small World deal increases access to lucrative French remittances

Small World Financial Services is addressing a gap in its cross-border network by making a deal to buy French money transfer agent MoneyGlobe.

MoneyGlobe has an agent network in France that supports remittances to North and West Africa, the Caribbean and South America. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. It's Small World Financial's first purchase since it was acquired in 2018 by private equity firm Equistone Partners.

“We identified MoneyGlobe as a fantastic addition to our business, due to its strong growth to date and established presence in France, a large market where we were looking to strengthen our position,” Nick Day, chief executive and founder of Small World, said in a press release.

The acquisition complements the U.K.-based company’s existing footprint by adding coverage of the French market to an existing money transfer network that currently processes 15 million transactions worldwide each year.

The Small World network will provide MoneyGlobe customers multiple payment options across more than 250,000 cash-pick locations in over 160 countries and direct-to-bank account payout in more than 100 countries.

According to the World Bank, France had about $15.2 billion in outward remittance flows to other countries in 2018. Several of the countries MoneyGlobe highlights on its website are dependent on foreign remittances, such as Haiti, Senegal, Morocco and Mali. Remittances accounted for 34% of Haiti’s GDP in 2018, as well as 10% of Senegal’s GDP, 5.8% of Morocco’s GDP and 5.4% of Mali’s GDP, according to the World Bank.

In July Small World Financial partnered with merchant acquirer Credorax to help expand the two companies’ reach to underbanked European consumers. In March 2018 Equistone Partners Europe, a middle-market private equity firm, acquired a majority stake in Small World Financial Services. At the time of the transactions Small World Financial had annual revenues in excess of £110 million (about $143 million).