The Inter-American Development Bank's MIF-financed technical cooperation will help central banks and other authorities in the region involved in the regulation, operation and measurement of the remittance market implement the principles developed under the leadership of the World Bank and the Bank for International Settlements' Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems.

Fifteen central banks from the more remittance-dependent economies will be visited by specialists who will help them strengthen remittance market reporting and increase awareness to disseminate the principles. The other central banks will participate in regional seminars and other events with similar objectives.

Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru have  indicated their desire to be included among the forthcoming missions, which will aim at a frequency of one per quarter.

"The project will help make international remittance services more secure and efficient," said MIF Team Leader Federico de Arteaga. "This will be achieved by promoting greater transparency and consumer protection, an improved payment system infrastructure for small cross-border payments, a more sound legal and regulatory framework, greater competition and market access, and more developed risk management systems."

"The goal of this initiative is to increase net receipts of remittances in the region by reducing the cost of sending money in a more affordable and competitive market," added de Arteaga. "It will benefit the recipients of  remittances from family members by promoting their formal participation in the payment system and facilitating their access to more secure remittance services."

Remittance flows in the region reached $56.3 billion in 2005, exceeding direct foreign investment flows and official external assistance in the region combined. An estimated 150 million individual transactions are executed each year involving 20 million families, who receive between $200 and $300 per operation. Remittances represent a significant percentage of gross domestic product for certain countries and contribute significantly to poverty reduction.

The Centre for Latin American Monetary Studies is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization based in Mxico City providing training, dissemination, research and technical cooperation to central banks in Latin America and the Caribbean. CEMLA is comprised of 47 institutions, central banks from the countries in the region and Europe and other regional institutions. CEMLA's counterpart financing for this project will total $2,053,000.

The Multilateral Investment Fund is an autonomous fund, administered by the IDB. It provides grants, investments and loans to promote private sector growth, labor force training and small enterprise modernization in Latin America and the Caribbean.