By threatening to close their Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp accounts this week, a group representing Somali Americans has pushed the ongoing hawala remittance issue to a head.
But a bigger threat to the Philippines (and other remittance-dependent countries) comes from a Saudi effort to tackle unemployment by boosting the employment of locals.
"Although migrant workers are to a large extent adversely affected by the slow growth in the global economy, remittance volumes have remained remarkably resilient, providing a vital lifeline to not only poor families but a steady and reliable source of foreign currency in many poor remittances recipient countries, " agrees Hans Timmer, director of the bank's Development Prospects Group.