Pomelo Taps Galileo to Power Global Credit Remittances for Families

Galileo Financial Technologies has teamed with money transfer company Pomelo to add its API-enabled technology to the Pomelo card.

The company said in a news release that the card lets families in the U.S. build and extend credit access abroad without racking up costly remittance fees.

The release cites figures from the World Bank showing that remittances to low- and middle-income countries will reach $630 billion this year.

While international money transfers are on the rise, Galileo said, they also continue to impose costly transfer fees and “exchange rate markups on senders.”

Pomelo, the release said, is the first option that lets families combine credit with money transfers to make it easier to provide credit to friends and loved ones overseas.

“This added flexibility and accessibility not only broadens financial inclusion for members of underserved communities who need it most — it also helps new Americans establish and strengthen their credit profile as they start their financial journey in the U.S.,” Galileo said.

PYMNTS reported last week that companies are competing for the growing U.K.-to-Nigeria payments pipeline, with Nigerians consistently among the U.K.’s top migrant communities.

In fact, the World Bank projects that Nigeria receives 10% to 15% of all remittances originating from the U.K., a sign of the deep historical and economic ties between the two countries.

As such, British Nigerians have a lot to gain from the steadily declining fees on international transfers from the U.K., which, according to the World Bank, dropped from 6.44% to 6.25% between 2017 and 2021.

That decline has been driven by the advent of nontraditional FinTech players in the cross-border payments sector, including a number of African and U.K.-based firms focused on reducing the cost of transferring funds between the two countries.

For example, the Nigerian money app Kuda announced that this month it is launching in the U.K. with the aim of serving the remittance needs of Nigerians living in the country.

Pomelo currently allows cardholders to send money from the U.S. to the Philippines, with India and Mexico scheduled next, along with plans for further international expansion.