A website aimed at helping migrants from 14 countries choose the
best way to send remittances back home was launched yesterday at an
International Conference on Remittances in the Italian capital,
Rome.

The website, "http://www.mandasoldiacasa.it" target="_blank" title=
"">www.mandasoldiacasa.it (sendmoneyhome), compares services
offered in sending remittances to Albania, Bolivia, Brazil, China,
Colombia, Ecuador, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru,
Philippines, Romania and Senegal, which represent 73 per cent of
all remittances sent from Italy. Migrants can also get other
crucial information such as exchange rate margins and net amounts a
recipient will receive and how long it will take for the money to
be transferred.

"The website is a tool intended to improve migrants' financial
literacy by providing useful information on terms and main
financial products offered to migrants," says Peter Schatzer, IOM's
Regional Representative for the Mediterranean. "It also hosts a
wide range of information on initiatives channelling remittances
for the socio-economic development of home countries."

It is also hoped that the website will stimulate market
competition among money transfer operators so that the cost of
remitting migrants' savings can be reduced.

Set up by IOM in cooperation with the Centre for International
Political Studies (CeSPI) and Laboratorio Migrazioni e Sviluppo, a
network of Italian civil society organizations and NGOs, the
website's creation was supported by the Italian Foreign Ministry's
General Directorate for Development Cooperation.

The International Conference on Remittances, organized by the
Italian Foreign Ministry and the World Bank in the framework of
Italy's G8 Presidency, brought together representatives from
various fields including governments, donors, international
organizations, scholars, major banks and money transfer operators,
and civil society. Among the issues discussed were the consequences
of the recent commitment by G8 leaders to reduce the cost of
sending remittances by five percentage points in the next five
years.

For further information, please contact:

Flavio Di Giacomo

IOM Rome

Tel: + 39 06 44 186 207

E-mail: "mailto:fdigiacomo@iom.int">fdigiacomo@iom.int