The news: MoneyGram will let customers in Jamaica receive remittances through homegrown mobile wallet Lynk, per a press release. The wallet offers peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, retail payments, and bill pay.
Why it matters: Despite launching just over a year ago, Lynk has the potential to be a formidable player in Jamaica’s mobile wallet space. It reached $9.8 million in payments volume and was the third-most-popular financial Android app in Jamaica, according to web analytics firm Similarweb.
It could be a valuable partner for MoneyGram. Here’s why:
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Lynk supports financial inclusion. The wallet doesn’t charge any transfer fees and doesn’t require a bank account or internet access. This can remove barriers to digital payments for the 17% of Jamaica’s population who lack bank accounts and the roughly 25% who don’t have reliable internet access, per the Caribbean Policy Research Institute.
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Its connection with National Commercial Bank (NCB) gives it a competitive edge. NCB is Jamaica’s biggest bank and powers Lynk. It gives Lynk customers access to a large ATM network, where they can top up or withdraw funds from their wallets. NCB might also make Lynk seem like a more reputable and reliable wallet than other providers.
MoneyGram’s opportunity: Working with Lynk will give MoneyGram broader access to Jamaica’s remittance sector as the wallet grows, which can help it rake in more volume. The country’s remittance inflow was $3.44 billion in 2022, according to the Bank of Jamaica.
- Tie-ups with digital wallets like Lynk will become more important for MoneyGram as its digital remittances become a larger part of its business: The firm’s digital money transfer transactions increased 47% year over year (YoY) in Q4, compared with 29% the year before.
- Partnerships will also help MoneyGram compete with digital upstarts like Wise and Remitly, which have been gaining market share.
Lynk’s benefit: Partnering with MoneyGram can help Lynk offer more services.
Adding remittances can make the wallet more attractive and useful because remittances are a core part of Jamaica’s economy: Personal remittances accounted for 25.3% of Jamaica’s gross domestic product in 2018, per the latest World Bank data.