Estimates show that 6.5 million Australians with family or friends overseas rely on money transfer services.  From 2013 to 2015 the major Australian banks closed their remittance accounts with a devastating effect on Victorian communities with overseas families dependent on remittances. That decision continues to threaten the livelihood of small ethnic-based Money Transfer Operators (MTO) in Victoria which represent a thriving migrant employment sector.  

In September and October 2015 ECCV conducted a focus group in Carlton with people and business owners from the Horn of Africa who regularly send overseas remittances. We also conducted one-to-one interviews in Footscray with operators and employees from ‘non-bank’ ethnic-based money transfer operators that specialise in sending overseas remittances to countries in the Horn of Africa and especially to East Africa and Somalia.

From 2013 to 2015 the major Australian banks closed their remittance accounts with a devastating effect on Victorian communities with overseas families dependent on remittances. That decision continues to threaten the livelihood of small ethnic-based Money Transfer Operators (MTO) in Victoria which represent a thriving migrant employment sector.