Price Disclosures Will Help Immigrants Save Money, Support Families Abroad

WASHINGTON, July 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The financial reform bill signed into law today by President Obama includes long-needed remittance transparency standards that will help ensure the safe and affordable transfer of billions of dollars each year from immigrant workers to their families abroad.

Section 1073 of the Restoring American Financial Stability Act, which reflects many Appleseed recommendations, requires remittance providers to disclose vital service information prior to a transaction. Among the details to be provided in a written pre-transaction notice are the amount of money that will be received by the designated recipient, any fees charged by the remittance provider, and the exchange rate to be used in the transfer.

"The tens of billions that U.S. immigrants send home each year are vital to the financial stability of developing countries," said Annette LoVoi, director of Appleseed's Financial Access and Asset Building Program. "So the benefits of improved remittance transparency will be felt worldwide."

The law also requires remittance providers to distribute post-transaction receipts showing the amount of money to be received, the promised date of delivery to the designated recipient, identifying information about the recipient, and a statement containing the senders' rights regarding error resolution.

Further, the law requires disclosure of contact information for the remittance provider and the state and federal government regulators for complaints. All these disclosures will be available in the foreign languages most commonly used by remittance customers.

Remittance flows from United States, which reached an estimated $47 billion in 2008, play an integral role in both poverty alleviation abroad and asset building here in the U.S. Because about 80 percent of remitters earn less than $30,000 per year, even small savings are vital to both sides of a remittance transaction, and up-front disclosures will not only allow for comparison shopping, but likely drive down costs through increased competition.

As a nearly decade-long advocate for increased transparency in the remittance market, Appleseed applauds the efforts of lawmakers to help transform our carefully crafted proposals into action and extends special gratitude to Senator Daniel Akaka and House committee chairmen Barney Frank and Luis Gutierrez and their staffs. To view Appleseed's full body of work on international remittances, including our Fair Exchange pilot program and Congressional testimony, visit www.appleseednetwork.org.  

*The positions of the Appleseed National Office are not necessarily endorsed by its affiliate Centers.

SOURCE Appleseed

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