How cross-border payment flows have changed over time
We continue to develop all our market sizing datasets, covering the full set of market segmentations from remittances all the way to large corporate and institutional flows.
This week, we share some new data on remittances flows. Since 2010, we have seen the volume of flows grow significantly, with FXC Intelligence data showing remittances growing from around $420bn in 2010 to a projected $1.1tn in 2025. We are also seeing some interesting fluctuations in relative share by region along the way.
Europe has remained the leading sender of remittances while the top receiver has switched several times between Asia & Pacific and Europe, with Europe ultimately taking the top spot in 2025. This has happened due to the relative growth of intra-European remittances, aided by the existence of the euro and eurozone payment systems such as SEPA, which help facilitate cross-border payments between European countries. SEPA was initially introduced in 2008 and was fully implemented in 2014.
In the Asia & Pacific region, governments have similarly been exploring the creation of international payment systems that, combined with existing private digital solutions, have helped Asia remain in close competition with Europe as the top remittance receiver.
In terms of sending flows, the US and Canada are making significant contributions to the Americas’ high volume. Elsewhere, major European countries continue to have large and growing remittance flows between both countries with which they have historical links and those where more recent markets have developed; increased ease of intra-European migration in Europe is creating significant new remittance markets.
This can be seen in the UK, which continues to have high remittance flows to India, with which it has historical ties, as well as significant flows to Romania in recent years. While Romania didn’t place in the UK’s top 10 corridors until 2017, it has been in its top 5 corridors since 2021.
In the longer term, such historical ties may reduce as it is possible that increased digitisation and growing financial inclusion will lessen the dependence on established remittance relationships. We are already seeing evidence of this in the US, where de-dollarisation is resulting in reduced dependence from many countries who were once more tightly connected to the US.
To learn more about all the additions to our remittances market size data or any of our other market size datasets covering the business and corporate segments, please get in touch.
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