The Hidden Costs of Global Money Transfers

While 90% of the 41 jurisdictions surveyed have introduced cost-transparency requirements, the rules often fail to capture the full financial picture. Only 78% of these regions mandate disclosure of total fees for retail transfers, and a mere 41% require providers to show what the recipient actually receives. Foreign-exchange markups remain particularly opaque; fewer than 40% of jurisdictions force providers to disclose the difference between the applied rate and a reference rate, leaving the 'zero-fee' marketing claims of many platforms effectively unchecked.

Beyond pricing, the infrastructure for tracking funds remains fragmented. Less than 40% of jurisdictions require providers to offer payment tracking, and fewer than 10% mandate that customers be notified when an intermediary holds their funds. As non-bank fintech firms capture a larger share of the market—in Australia, the bank share of cross-border payments dropped from 76% to 39% in eight years—this regulatory unevenness creates a competitive disadvantage for consumers. Moving forward, the OECD suggests that policymakers prioritize total-cost disclosure and standardized tracking, ensuring that identical services carry the same level of protection regardless of whether they are provided by a traditional bank or a digital startup.