The Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) will hold a conference on Tuesday, January 28 in Madrid on the economic and social impact of remittances sent to Latin America by immigrants in Spain.
The conference, which will take place at the Ministry of Economy (Paseo de la Castellana 162), will bring together public sector officials and bankers from Spain and Latin America, representatives from migrant organizations and journalists. The event has been organized with support from Spain’s Trade and Tourism Secretariat and the Spanish Confederation of Credit Unions.
At the conference participants will discuss the findings of a report on the money sent to Latin America and the Caribbean by hundreds of thousands of immigrants living and working in Spain. According to MIF estimates, those remittances amount to around €1 billion a year.
Remittances have become a key source of revenue for many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The region received an estimated $25 billion last year from expatriates in the United States, Europe and Japan. These flows exceeded all the foreign aid to Latin American and Caribbean nations.
The MIF, an autonomous fund managed by the IDB, supports the development of the private sector in Latin America and the Caribbean through investments and grants. Among its activities it carries out programs aimed at cutting the cost of remittances by promoting competition among service providers and by supporting financial institutions that serve low-income clients, such as credit unions and microfinance institutions.