Remittances, the portion of migrant workers' earnings sent back home to their families, have been a critical means of financial support for generations. But, for the most part, these flows have historically been -hidden in plain view-, often uncounted and even ignored. All that is now changing...

The Dominican Republic is the fourth largest remittance market in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Remittances are an economic necessity for recipients, and financial sector involvement in the industry is necessary for improved effectiveness and efficiency.

As entrepreneurs explore markets abroad, migrant workers driven by family values search abroad for comparative advantages. The challenge is to provide adequate financial infrastructure for families to use remittances more effectively.

The purpose of this study is to show how microfinance services may undergo the impacts of climate change, to analyze the opportunities available for MFIs and to propose concrete actions. This paper was commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in coordination with the Sustainable...

This report compressed the results of a four-month initiative to identify unmet needs and market opportunities in Colombia, El Salvador, Brazil and Mexico, and present a potential private sector solutions that can address these unmet needs profitably.

This study was prepared for the Financial Services and Poverty Reduction research project and was presented at the conference with the same name held at Bank headquarters in September of 2004. It first establishes the considerable welfare cost borne by the region's poor when facing uncovered...

The Private Sector Mapping Project takes a closer look at the current motives, strategies, incentives, obstacles, and benefits as perceived by firms to enter untapped majority markets.

This working paper is being published with the sole objective of contributing to the debate of a topic of importance to the region, and to elicit comments and suggestions from interested parties.

This analysis outlines current trends and issues regarding the Latin American and Caribbean remittance markets and provides a statistical summary of its size, its demographic characteristics, and its economic impact.

Japan, which has relatively higher paying jobs compared to North America, is becoming a preferred destination for Latin American migrants of Japanese descent, creating an important new remittance market.