Evolving informal remittance methods among Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand

In the Thailand-Myanmar remittance corridor, while the bulk of Myanmar migrant workers rely on informal money transfer operators, the informal operators themselves utilise a bank branch network to deliver funds to families of the migrant workers. Paradoxically, the expanding bank branch network has fostered informal money transfers. Against this backdrop, we examine determinants in migrant workers' choice of informal operators based on a questionnaire survey of Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand. The empirical results indicate that migrant workers who sent remittances to town were, while having alternative choices of remittance operators, more likely to choose the informal operators that utilised bank branches for delivery of funds to recipients. It implies that expanding the branch network of Myanmar banks is conducive to competition among informal money transfer operators.