Making remittance services more transparent
Contents
• About Send Money Service
• Introduction to the Send Money Service (SMS) platform
• How it works
• Mobile access
About Send Money Service
• SMS is a project of the World Bank Payment Systems
Development Group (PSDG), part of the Financial and
Private Sector Development Vice-Presidency, Financial Inclusion Practice, Financial Infrastructure Service Line
• The Send Money Service project is a winner of the World
Bank Innovation Fund
• The platform was created by Development Gateway, a
non-profit organization that provides information solutions and services for development organizations
About Send Money Service /2
• Send Money Service is a white-label software
• Content and data of each new website is fully customizable
by the site administrators
• Each website is completely independent (not linked to a
central platform)
• Send Money Service is designed to meet the World Bank
minimum requirements for remittance price databases *
(available at http://remittanceprices.worldbank.org/National-Databases)
* Note: use of the SMS platform does not suffice to obtain WB certification for remittance price databases; WB certification requires a separate approval process; please contact us for additional information at [email protected]
Introduction to the
Send Money Service (SMS) platform
• What is it? A toolkit for creating, customizing, and
publishing a remittance price database online
• Who is it for? Organizations that collect data on the price
of remittances
• What are the advantages? Open source, easy to use and
maintain, highly replicable, and low cost
SMS Objective: Publish remittance price databases to increase the transparency of remittance services
How it works
• Send Money Service websites allow remitters to select a
sending/receiving country pair (“country corridor”)
• A table displays information on providers, products, and
fees for that corridor
• Aimed primarily at migrant workers sending money to their
countries of origin
• Historical data can be used by policymakers and
researchers to understand trends
Home Page
Choose a “country corridor” (sending and receiving country pair)
News feed with updates on relevant topics Customize name, logo, and look and feel of home page
Country Corridor Selector
Country Corridor page shows all
sending/receiving country combinations
Site administrator can add/delete countries
Sample Price Comparison Table
Results table displays comparison of products and pricing Choose amount sent (e.g. 200 CAD or 500 CAD)—site administrator can customize Highlight non-transparent firms User-friendly icons describe information, additional information available in rollover tooltips
Sample Price Comparison Table
List of firms operating in country corridor
Total cost (in % and sending country currency) Amount received (in recipient country currency)
Sample Custom Page
Site administrator can create custom pages, such as “About Us”
Mobile access
• Users can send a text message to a dedicated number and
receive a reply with information on the cost of the services offered by firms for the sending/receiving country pair
• Text reply will contain the following for each firm in the
relevant price comparison table:
– Name of the firm
– Fee charged to sender – Exchange rate margin (%) – The total cost
Mobile
Views
Mobile-friendly version makes entire site
accessible via smart phone
Setting up a new site
• Send Money Service toolkit makes it easy to install and set
up a new website
• Your organization’s System Administrator installs and
configures the platform on the chosen domain
• System Administrator can take advantage of powerful
customization options, including collection frequency, colors, logo, site name, and slogan
Setting up a new site (cont.)
• Select from several home page and custom page layouts
• Several optional widgets are available
• Custom news feeds ensure that content is continually
refreshed
• Header, main, and footer menus can be managed
• Localization and translation to an unlimited number of
Maintaining the platform
• Once the website is configured, maintenance is simple
• Two roles: Researchers and Business Administrators
• Researchers:
– Collect data on remittance services
– Have permission to upload data (either via MS Excel file, or manual data entry) and view it in the system
– Detailed error reports available make it easier to spot errorsin data entry
• Business administrators:
– Validate, clean, and publish the data – Edit content on custom pages
Selecting Site Layout
Select
homepage layout
Adding/Changing Content
Administrative interface is user-friendly—no technical skills required View and edit text for content pagesViewing/Editing Uploaded Data
Manually enter data for an individual money transfer firm
Editing Taxonomy
Change or translate terms for different parts of the price
comparison table (e.g. “Sending location”)
Minimum technical requirements
• To install the platform, the following is required:
– Windows or Linux OS
– Apache 2.2
– PHP 5.3.X
Contact
• Download the Send Money Service source code and find
more information at
www.worldbank.org/fpd/send-money-service
• For more on the remittance price data collection
methodology used by the World Bank, visit
http://remittanceprices.worldbank.org/Methodology
