Users are increasingly moving away from traditional money remittance service providers in favor of mobile phone money remitters for sending funds to Fiji. This trend was highlighted in the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) 2023 annual report, which was presented in Parliament on September 2, 2024, by Attorney-General Graham Leung.
The FIU, serving as Fiji’s anti-money laundering agency, oversees and logs all financial transactions conducted through 172 financial institutions across 12 sectors, including commercial banks, mobile companies, accounting firms, legal practitioners, money lenders, real estate agents, and insurance and superannuation companies. As of 2023, the FIU maintained a database with over 30 million transactions.
Among these, remittances to and from Fiji are documented as Electronic Fund Transfer Reports (EFTRs). The total number of EFTRs surged from approximately 1.5 million in 2019 to 3.5 million in 2023. Notably, the method of fund transfer showed a drastic change, with transactions via traditional money remittance services plummeting from 71 percent in 2019 to just 26 percent in 2023. Conversely, remittances through mobile phones soared from a mere 4 percent of total EFTRs in 2019 to over 60 percent in 2023.
The FIU attributed the rise in mobile phone money remittances to a significant consumer demand for mobile money wallets, which are seen as more convenient and cost-effective options for transferring funds to Fiji compared to traditional channels.
In terms of overall EFTRs, inward remittances comprised 92 percent, with the majority originating from Australia (47 percent), followed by the United States (19 percent), New Zealand (18 percent), the United Kingdom (8 percent), and Canada (2 percent). Outward remittances primarily went to Australia (22 percent), New Zealand (17 percent), the United States (7 percent), India (7 percent), and China (4 percent), according to the FIU.