CFPB warns providers to stop junk fees on international money transfers
- junk fees
- CFPB
To determine the cost of a transaction today, consumers have to conduct a complex calculation multiplying the provider’s exchange rate with the amount they’re transferring, adding fees, and then repeat the same exercise using the real exchange rate on Google, it’s time-consuming and difficult. That’s how so many banks and providers can conceal such significant revenue in exchange rate mark-ups.
Transparent pricing will end hidden fees and potentially help save billions for newly empowered consumers.
Last year, people and businesses around the world lost £187 billions due to hidden inflated exchange rates. According to the World Bank, “the single most important factor leading to high remittance prices is a lack of transparency in the market”.
Reducing remittance costs to 3% by 2030 is a global target under the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10.C. We have a long way to go and it will require policy intervention to get us there.