Spain’s G20 National Remittance Plan: Enhancing Remittance Services and Financial Inclusion

The Spain G20 National Remittance Plan 2021 outlines the country’s strategy to improve remittance services and financial inclusion. The plan aims to create an enabling environment that promotes compliance, innovation, and inclusiveness in remittance services, both domestically and internationally.

Payment Systems

The payment system is designed to facilitate interoperability between domestic Automated Clearing Houses (ACHs) in the EU, ensuring seamless transactions. Key features include:

• Direct Participation: Banks and other financial institutions can directly connect to the system platform to instruct and receive payment instructions.
• SEPA Instruments: Harmonized Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) instruments facilitate interoperability between domestic ACHs in the EU.

Governance and Risk Management

Remittance service providers are subject to the same risk management practices and Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regulations as other finance service providers. This ensures a high level of security and compliance.

Non-Regulatory Actions to Improve Quality of Remittance Services and Financial Inclusion

Spain fosters private-public partnerships at national level, promoting outreach initiatives with compliance officers. The country also shares best practices with other countries through regional bodies, promoting innovation and cooperation in the remittance sector.

Promoting Access to Financial Services and Inclusiveness

Active supervision and close cooperation with public authorities, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders increase transparency and fairness in the basic payment account market. This ensures that financial services are accessible to all, promoting financial inclusion.

Crisis Mitigation and Prevention

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Spain took extraordinary measures to ensure financial services, including non-bank remittance service providers and agents, were classified as essential services. This ensured continuity of remittance services during a critical period.

Country Plan for 2022-2023

Spain’s country plan for 2022-2023 includes the following key objectives:

1. Promoting Compliance: Providing a regulatory environment that promotes compliance, competitiveness, and innovation in remittance services.
2. Cross-Border Payments: Working with the Financial Stability Board on cross-border payments projects, such as the G20 Roadmap.
3. Innovation: Promoting innovation in the financial sector to increase competition and facilitate entry of FinTech service providers.
4. Digital Identification: Reinforcing international contribution to digital identification initiatives through EU participation.
5. Digital Remittance Services: Enhancing access to digital remittance services through a national plan for digital competencies (approved under the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan).
6. Infrastructure Development: Improving infrastructures with the deployment of 5G networks in all areas of the territory.

Overall, Spain’s G20 National Remittance Plan aims to create an enabling environment that promotes compliance, innovation, and inclusiveness in remittance services, both domestically and internationally.