Send me money ASAP: Fast Payment Systems and the Cost of Remittances

11 September 2026

Banca d'Italia today publishes 'Send me money ASAP: Fast Payment Systems and the Cost of Remittances', the new issue of the series 'Markets, infrastructures, payment systems'.

This paper investigates the impact of Fast Payment Systems (FPS) on the cost of international remittances, using a staggered treatment econometric framework estimated on granular data at the country, firm, and payment instrument levels. The results show that, although FPS are primarily developed to improve the efficiency of domestic payments, the costs of remittances to countries adopting an FPS decline following its implementation. This decline is mainly driven by lower foreign exchange margins, a cost component that is often not fully visible to remittance senders, and is more pronounced for cash-collected remittances, which are traditionally more expensive than those to mobile wallets. Using an instrumental variable approach, we identify increased competition among remittance service providers as an important channel through which the benefits of fast payment services are transmitted to cross-border transactions. Overall, our findings suggest that introducing an FPS can lower remittance costs even in the absence of a direct linkage between domestic payment systems. Future interlinking of FPS across jurisdictions could further amplify these benefits.