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Simplified remittances. Cross-border payments play a crucial role in Mexicans鈥� financial health. According to our forecast, $70.14 billion in remittances will flow into Mexico this year. They made up roughly 4% of Mexico鈥檚 GDP in 2023, per Banco de M茅xico and World Bank data. Fintech innovation around remittances has surged to help facilitate these flows.

Remittances inflows will total a whopping $901.30 billion worldwide this year, according to our forecast, presenting a massive volume stream for wallets to capture.

Ecuador's Banco Pichincha began using Visa Direct for remittances in Q1. Visa also partnered with X Money. In addition to offering peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, Visa CEO Ryan McInerney also said the solution will help X creators get paid faster. The companies are also working on other use cases. What鈥檚 next? Visa is preparing to launch account-to-account (A2A) payments in Europe early this year.

The payment network also pushed crypto payments, remittances, and consumer bill payments during the quarter to boost network volume, Miebach said. The bigger picture: Mastercard鈥檚 volume could suffer if the Capital One-Discover merger goes through. Capital One鈥檚 debit volume is primarily on the Mastercard network. Some of that volume may instead start to get sent over Discover鈥檚 network instead.

The digital bank鈥檚 customers will be able to use the stablecoin for direct deposits and outbound payments like remittances. The feature will also offer automatic, real-time conversion to and from USD. FV Bank also offers Circle鈥檚 USDC and Tether鈥檚 USDT as payment options. The bigger picture: PayPal launched PYUSD in August 2023.

Cryptocurrency volatility has tempered expectations for crypto payments. But it hasn鈥檛 erased them: Retail, remittance, and cross-border B2B payments remain in growth mode.

Digitization has reduced consumers鈥� remittances costs worldwide, reshaping the competitive battlefield. Money transfer operators must follow new playbooks to monetize this $800 billion market.

Investments in crypto-enabled card programs, wallets, and remittances are helping them do just that. Crypto payers will make up 19.4% of crypto owners in 2026, versus 13.4% in 2024. But we think most investors鈥攅specially higher-income consumers who have other ready funds to make purchases鈥攚ill remain wary of paying with crypto to avoid the burdensome tax consequences.

Digital transformation has upended the global remittance market, thereby pressuring consumer pricing, reshaping the competitive battlefield, and creating new playbooks for traditional money transfer operators.

And it expanded its tie-up with DailyPay in the US, enabling customers to send earned wages as international remittances. Our take: Enabling US transfers in one minute or less is a major milestone for Visa Direct. It makes it a true real-time payments competitor. And if Visa can bring this capability globally, it could become a major game changer in the RTP space.

A growing number of migrants in the US and a lack of formal remittance channels are creating an opening for US-based remittance firms in the country.

Payment provider innovation and regulatory changes are setting a long-term growth runway for cryptocurrency payments. But providers will still need to overcome low merchant acceptance and a sense of mistrust before crypto can go mainstream.

Weixin users can receive remittances from Tencent鈥檚 global partners directly to their wallets.

It鈥檚 working with homegrown wallet Lynk so customers can receive remittances, which will aid its digital push.

Investments in crypto-enabled card programs, wallets, and remittances are helping to reduce crypto checkout friction. Crypto payers will make up 19.4% of crypto owners in 2026, versus 13.4% in 2024. But we think most investors鈥攅specially higher-income consumers who have other ready funds to make purchases鈥攚ill remain wary of paying with crypto to avoid paying capital gains taxes on every transaction.

It still has strong potential to disrupt some payments like remittances, but gyrating prices will limit widespread adoption. Instead, incumbents are investing in crypto on-ramps and off-ramps. Cash will not follow checks into disuse. It鈥檚 still the most widely鈥攖hough not most frequently鈥攗sed payment method.

Their remittance information enables straightforward reconciliation, and the payments can be easily integrated into AP and AR automation solutions. For example, AvidXchange鈥檚 ACH product AvidPay Direct includes enhanced remittance notes with every payment and uses the company鈥檚 accounting systems as the system of record. Card payments are inching up.

It tried to encourage a number of consumer uses鈥攆rom P2P payments on Venmo to remittances on PayPal-owned Xoom鈥攂ut adoption has been slow. While it has grown to become the seventh-largest stablecoin by market cap ($694.6 million), according to CoinMarketCap, it is dwarfed by industry leaders Tether ($119.62 billion), USDC ($35.56 billion), and Dai ($5.36 billion).

Revolut is also uniquely positioned to capture part of India鈥檚 huge remittance market. India鈥檚 remittance inflows will reach $123.08 billion this year, up 6.2% YoY, per our forecasts. And outflows will total $12.34 billion in 2024, growing 9.2% YoY. Our take: Despite the large growth opportunity India presents, Revolut will face steep competition.