This report reveals the findings from our qualitative and quantitative research with remittance senders who live in the United Kingdom and send remittances to either Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria or Uganda.

Remittances act as key sources of financial support for households: They reduce the likelihood of impoverishment, contribute to improved health and education, and provide greater resilience to financial shocks. To maximise remittance impact from the United Kingdom to these countries, this research investigated remittance senders’ demand for for-purpose remittance products and whether these products could lead to increased formal remittance flows, improved customer retention and increased customer acquisition.

There are two types of for-purpose remittance products:

• Labelling is when remittances are sent to an individual with an intended purpose attached (e.g. sending your grandmother GBP100 with a note that says the money is meant to cover her visit to the doctor).
• Labelling with enforcement is when remittances are sent directly to an institution instead of an individual (e.g. sending GBP100 directly to the doctor’s office to pay for your grandmother’s appointment).

The findings indicate that survey respondents reported that they would not only take up for-purpose remittance products but that these products would result in them sending more money more frequently and/or to more people. Piloting for-purpose remittance products is the next step in validating the business case of such products. To learn more about the report, or to partner with us to pilot such products, please contact Antonia Esser.

The structure of the report is as follows:

• Chapter 2 reviews existing literature on why remittance senders send funds, and it highlights experimental evidence of the associated effects of the behavioural interventions of labelling and labelling with enforcement on financial decisions.
• Chapter 3 outlines the research methodology we used to test both interventions.
• Chapter 4 summarises the results from both the qualitative and quantitative research with regard to the demand for for-purpose remittance products and the potential associated remittance behaviour change.
• Chapter 5 concludes the report and offers some recommendations, especially targeted at remittance service providers (RSPs).

This work forms part of the Risk, Remittances and Integrity programme, a partnership between FSD Africa and Cenfri.