Azimo, Europe’s leading digital money transfer service, today announced its partnership with dLocal, the leading cross-border payments platform for emerging markets, to allow migrants in Europe and Australia to transfer money to most banks in Colombia, including Davivienda, Banco de Bogota and Banco de Occidente.
The new service provides a faster, easier user experience for Azimo customers, with fewer forms to fill in and a simpler transfer process. For example, transfers submitted by 1pm GMT will arrive in the recipient’s bank account on the same day.
Dora Ziambra, Azimo’s COO, said: “Remittances to Colombia have been boosted as much by emigration from Colombia to Europe as by immigration from Venezuela to Colombia. Many Venezuelans in Europe are now sending money to their families in Colombia instead of their country of origin. We are also seeing continued growth from our main sending markets (France, Spain and Germany) to Colombia.
“As geo-politics continues to reshape the global economy, money transfer services like Azimo need to be as flexible as their customers. That means faster, cheaper services that work irrespective of national borders.”
While the partnership between dLocal and Azimo begins with expanding access to Colombia, it lays the groundwork for future enhancements to Azimo’s platform, as they will also be able to offer faster, more efficient remittance services in other markets in Latin America.
Meirav Adi, Vice President of Sales for dLocal, said: “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Azimo to speed up and expand their remittance services across the globe, starting with Colombia. The need for fast and cost efficient remittance services is critical regardless of geography, and we look forward to growing our partnership with Azimo to help them further their goal of creating a better way to share money around the world.”
According to World Bank data, Colombia received a record $6.8 billion in remittance during 2019, roughly 2% of the country’s GDP. This demonstrates the huge impact that Latin American immigrants in European nations make to the economy of their country of origin.
While remittance levels have fallen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, they are actually showing greater resilience than expected, especially in some emerging market countries. The World Bank estimates a 14% decline in global remittances by 2021 amid the pandemic. However, remittances to Mexico, for instance, surged 9.4% in the first eight months of the year.
Azimo, one of the few European fintech companies to reach profitability, continues to expand its global reach. It is now possible to send money to more than 200 countries and territories with Azimo from more than 25 countries across Europe. The service also launched in Australia in November of this year.
