Remittances, the international money transfers made by expatriate workers to their home countries, are estimated at around $300 billion a year worldwide. Latin American and Caribbean migrants sent close to $60 billion to their region in 2009, according to the IDB’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF).

A decade ago the MIF uncovered the true magnitude of remittances, which had long been relegated to the “errors and omissions” column of balance of payments records. Beyond measuring these massive flows, the MIF saw remittances as a potential key to “banking the unbanked” as most of these transfers involved poor people traditionally excluded from formal financial systems.

Remittances fit into a broader MIF agenda to promote financial inclusion through different types of payments and transfers, including mobile domestic payments and conditional cash transfers, in order to expand access to financial services tailored to the needs of the poor. To pursue that larger goal, the MIF funds projects and research, provides advisory services and organizes events to disseminate new ideas on how remittances can become a tool to overcome poverty.