Money Transfers Dubai 2008: A Path-Breaking Conference

Abdulrahim Al Awadi, the President of Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENA FATF) and Asst Executive Director of the Central Bank of the UAE, opened a packed Money Transfers conference in Dubai on the 28th of April, 2008. Top executives from money service businesses, investors and banks joined regulatory decision-makers at the prestigious Habtoor Resort and Spa. At the conference, James Bergman, CEO of Earthport said, “We have very loyal institutional investors, including Goldman Sachs, Man Financial, and other smaller funds; we are in talks with a London-based investment fund that are also attending the conference.”

The choice of Dubai as a venue for the conference was based on the region’s importance in the money transfer market. Adds Bergman, “We are looking to open up here in the Gulf and Asia Pacific, which are massive send-money-home markets. This morning, Earthport announced its entry into the US market by setting up a sales office.” U.S. Treasury Department’s Attache for the Gulf Cooperation Countries, Matthew Epstein commented, “The UAE is an important financial centre in the Gulf region. With its robust politics, economic development and liberal business environment, the country has managed to attract an influx of people, goods and capital.”

Important issues surrounding global money transfers were addressed – Mohammed Al Ansari, Chairman of Dubai-based Al Ansari Exchange, raised the point that regulators, particularly in the US, need to categorise foreign MTOs based on their level of compliance and track record in order to allow them to work with US banks effectively. He claimed that, when an incident occurred in any part of world, major US banks and clearinghouses would close all accounts with MTOs in a kneejerk reaction for fear of regulatory repercussions. Matthew Epstein defended the US stance by saying that the nation had released a set of guidelines for the MTOs to follow.

Neil Ruiz of the World Bank represented the view of development agencies that the pattern of migration seems to be undergoing a change. In the past, migration was typically seen as movement from the developed (north) to the less-developed (south) regions, but there is increasing evidence of movement between the ‘south’. Discussions that included Ruiz, Coinstar CEO Mohit Davar and several reprerepresentatives of Gulf-based exchange houses suggested that the Gulf is likely to see a shift away from Asian migration towards increased African migration.

At the MTD 2008 conference, multinational banks were well-represented – Citigroup’s global head of Remittance Services, Bhairav Trivedi announced and illuminated the features of Citi’s new remittance platform QuikRemit. HSBC’s Nader Haghighat explained the HSBC proposition in remittance offerings. Service providers such as Eurogiro and SWIFT were attending and the latter’s Payments Market Manager, Olivier Denis took time to explain the new multilateral service framework developed by SWIFT.

Technology innovations were strongly represented by World Check, InfoSpan Gulf, South Africa-based Fundamo, Virtual Money and the aggressively-growing Unistream, among others. Prepaid card technology, mobile technology, direct deposit methods, cheaper and quicker means of transfers were discussed by delegates. Concern about the “last mile” of the money delivery in rural areas of less-developed nations was expressed by some attendees, claiming that high-technology would not serve this market. Fundamo’s Aletha Ling countered this argument, saying that the consumer’s willingness to transfer money via mobile channel exists though varies depending on the market, and that the channel needs to be properly developed.

Regulators used the conference to gauge the new concerns and challenges of the industry as well as address the issues that face their agencies. International Compliance Association’s Middle East Director, David Cafferty spoke about the compliance situation in the Gulf and working with the governments regionally and internationally. He described the exchange houses in the UAE is efficient and referred to the UAE government as satisfied with their regulatory regime. Serious Organised Crime Agency’s Steve Bowen and the British Embassy’s Roy Affleck commented that mobile technology did not represent a threat to regulators.

A highly successful Dubai conference was brought to a close by IAMTN CEO Lady Olga Maitland and will soon be followed up by an even larger annual event – the Money Transfers London Conference on the 17th and 18th of November, 2008 at the Hilton Park Lane.