Moneygram , a major money transfer company based in the US, recently attended the Money 20/20 conference to offer innovative insights on the growth of the international remittance market. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Alex Holmes, Moneygram CEO, cited importance of KYC (Know Your Customer) regulations and user verification. One merit of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like Monero and Litecoin is its ability to enable any user on the network to send payments without boundaries. For instance, a user from the Philippines can easily send a Bitcoin transaction to a friend in South Korea, regardless of the amount. In early 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency network that is capable of handling payments without the presence of a mediator. The original white paper reads: “A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.” The absence of a mediator also suggests that users can send any amount to anyone in the network with substantially lower fees, without the possibility of transaction reversals. Moneygram & KYC regulations Unlike Bitcoin, Moneygram is a traditional remittance solutions provider and money transfer company. To settle transactions, Moneygram is required by both local and international financial regulations to store sensitive user data, for various reasons including law enforcement support. Thus, for larger payments, typically transactions worth more than $10,000. Moneygram requires a thorough user verification phase. “You can send well over $10,000 dollars but we collect more information at that point in time,” Holmes told Cointelegraph in an interview. The spokesperson further noted that the more information the company has on a user, the firm can process more transactions for that specific individual. “KYC is extremely important in our industry,” Holmes added. “The more we […]
