2022-12-15-IMF-抑制你的热情_金融科技的炒作在汇款市场遇到了现实（英）_45页_1mb

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Fintech Hype Meets Reality in Remittances

Despite significant hype around Fintech disrupting the remittances market, empirical evidence shows minimal actual disruption. The paper, drawing from extensive data, finds that remittance costs did not decrease meaningfully with the rise of Fintech companies, and key metrics like the bank-MTO cost gap remained unchanged. Bitcoin and blockchain, touted as game-changers, face severe limitations in practical terms, including high and volatile transaction fees, high ATM conversion costs, and low digital inclusion, making them largely irrelevant for remittances. Mobile money has fostered financial inclusion but did not significantly reduce costs or overshoot barriers like interoperability and regulation. Remtechs, while growing digitally, often partner with incumbents, limiting their disruptive potential and subjecting them to scalability and geographic challenges. The paper advocates maintaining skepticism toward Fintech narratives, emphasizing that Fintech firms foster competition and digitalization but do not inherently disrupt the market as expected. Policy measures, including fostering infrastructure sharing and combating regulatory capture, are vital to leverage Fintech's benefits in remittances.