Sri Lanka’s HNB has reported a smooth transition to contactless remittance transactions parallel to rising demand for digital remittances and cardless withdrawals during the coronavirus lockdown.

Digital payment transactions through the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), cards and mobile wallets have made a near V-shaped recovery this month.

Even before coronavirus came, Pakistan’s microfinance sector was sniffling.

Since the economic slowdown resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, work for many of them has dried up. The UN is supporting efforts to manage the large-scale influx of returnee workers.

Coronavirus lockdowns cost millions of migrant workers their jobs, halting billions in remittances they sent home.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday directed payment systems operators to undertake targeted multi-lingual campaigns by way of SMSs and advertisements to educate their users on safe and secure use of digital payments amid incidence of frauds continuing to bedevil people.

Eko's network of over 200,000 entrepreneurs, retailers, and individuals, across 200 cities in India has been instrumental in bringing about this ease to the lives of migrants.

Mobile-based payments will be resilient and overtake card payments in India, with the covid-19-induced economic slowdown likely to put a pause on the rapid rise of cashless payments in 2020.

Khushhali Microfinance Bank has contributed PKR 1 million (about $6,067.04) to the Fund to support the government in the fight against COVID-19.

Nepal, where remittance contribution to GDP in 2019 was equivalent to 27.3 percent, according to the World Bank, has lost nearly 50 percent of remittances in the past two months compared to the same period last year.