France
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encompasses the migrant market, with subsidiaries in France and throughout the African markets. (Attijariwafa Bank has subsidiaries in Africa, and Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur recently established subsidiaries in France by investing in the BOA group.) In particular, Attijariwafa bank bought the Senegalese Compagnie Bancaire de l’Afrique Occidentale (CBAO)—CBIP’s main stakeholder—as well as the Banque Internationale pour le Mali (BIM), the second-largest bank in Mali, with a presence in eight Sub-Saharan African countries.13 Informal sector RSPs. The informal sector includes diverse providers and individuals for whom money transfer is not necessarily the main activity. Three types of models dominate, often in combination or even including formal channels for efficiency: • Individual (carrying money and goods on trips home) • Community-based • Business-oriented. In the individual model, when a migrant worker returns home on vacation, he or she carries remittance money, not only for his or her own family but also on behalf of fellow migrants or close friends. The name of the sender, the receiver, and the amount are pasted on the bank notes. Costs are not formally fixed, but senders typically pay to the transportation carrier 3 to 10 percent of the amount carried. The community-based model involves a group of individuals (typically 15 to 20 people) living in the same village or the same building who create an “association” (formal or not) to send money home and manage a small shop in the village.14 This model is particularly prevalent among migrants from rural areas, where community ties are still strong. The money is collected within a small and close community group, and goods are purchased in France or from wholesalers in the home countries. Retail orders for individual money transfers or goods purchases (for the family) are made daily by mobile phone or fax (if the village has a regular phone connection). The group must ensure that it can always finance the collective village shop’s cash flow to remit money to relatives in the village and to buy goods for the community shop in bulk. The migrants’ regular visits to the village guarantee this minimum cash flow. Alternatively, bank wire transfers or cash advances from wholesalers in the home country can help to finance the cash flow. In turn, the revenue from sales and commissions also pay the group’s shopkeeper, a collector in charge of