Terra launches Pulse to improve quality of remittance reporting
New Delhi, India, February 03, 2016: Terra, a mobile-first international payment network, incubated by Mahindra Comviva, has announced the launch of Terra Pulse to help financial authorities and regulators accurately measure mobile-powered international remittances.
Terra Pulse, additionally, exposes APIs to enable partners, in particular smaller, local remittance companies, comply with in-country reporting regulations as well as understand performance trends, without the need for additional investments in expensive reporting and analytic tools. Terra Pulse can scale to handle high volumes of transactions whilst maintaining data integrity.
In developing countries, migrant remittances equal US$440 billion, a figure three times higher than the volume of official aid flows. From a macro-perspective, cross-border transfers are vital in terms of economic stability generated by the receipt of large capital inflows as well as in terms of overall development potential.
According to the World Bank, less than two-thirds of African countries, however, report data on remittances. For regulators, the ability to reliably track, monitor and measure remittance flows is essential to obtain meaningful insights on market trends and define appropriate growth-oriented policies for the industry. Most economies encounter several challenges in capturing and reporting remittance data, making it less reliable than other line constituents in the balance of payment accounts. Remittance data is fragmented and needs to be federated from multiple service providers, corridors and touch points. The complexity is compounded by the existence of disparate data sources, the use of proprietary data formats, the lack of standardized compilation models as well as varying levels of reporting granularity.
Commenting on Terra Pulse, Ambar Sur, Founder and CEO Terra, said, “In the next three years, the mobile would emerge as the dominant channel for cross-border transfers. Terra is defining the standards for mobile-powered international payments. The problem associated with data compilation is real, and no country has found a perfect solution. Terra addresses the need for a reliable data source by enforcing network-wide standards for counting, data compilation and reporting. This would go a long way towards understanding the nature and quantity of flows and maximizing the developmental impact of remittances.”