Global Remittance Cost averages 7.1% – World Bank
Coinciding with the recent 10 year anniversary of the Bitcoin whitepaper, Global Remittances (small individual payments to another person, such as a family member in another country) hover around 7%, according to this recent World Bank report.
In our opinion, cryptocurrency remittances (with costs usually less than 1%) will present the greatest disruption to the payments industry yet. Fees are already in a long term downtrend. Instant and near free payments are around the corner. Of course, there is a great deal of personal responsibility in making peer to peer payments, but in time as the ease of user experience improves, the decline in fees will accelerate. Banks remain the highest cost, averaging 10% fees. Large banks account for 78% of fee income in the U.S., according to this article
Banks will continue to have pressure on earnings as global payment fees decline long term. Global transaction fees are estimated to exceed $54 Billion annually, which is roughly the the entire GDP of the state us Alaska. More than $2.3 Billion in fees were collected in 2018 just from people sending money to India according to this article.
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For more information on the possibility diversion (of remit fees) into long term capital accumulation, Saifadean Ammous offers numerous examples of the benefits of capital accumulation. Link to his Bio here