Chad Harper, global payments senior fellow at the Visa Economic Empowerment Institute: “Remittance inflows for 2021 reached $773 billion globally and $605 billion for low- and middle-income countries. In addition to being a critical lifeline for families, remittances are critical to many countries. Last year, 30 countries received more than 10 percent of their GDP in remittances, and eight of them are in Latin America and the Caribbean: Dominica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica and Nicaragua. El Salvador and Honduras received more than 25 percent of their GDPs via remittances. Money transfer operators (MTOs)—both established operators with updated digital business models and the new breed of digital-first MTOs—saw digitally initiated remittances more than double during the pandemic. These newer services offer…”