The Group of Eight major powers will agree to call for banks in rich states to cut fees on remittances from migrant workers to developing countries during their upcoming summit, sources said Monday.
Lower fees would help developing nations receive more income earned by migrant workers, thereby raising national incomes and discouraging workers from using underground banks or financial networks to make their remittances, the sources said.
Migrant workers from developing countries annually remit about $100 billion from developed countries to their home nations, they said. Their income has helped home nations by meeting the fund needs of companies there and boosting family budgets.
The G8's meeting begins June 8 and will be held on Sea Island, Ga.
They will seek to arrange for developed nations to conclude agreements on such remittances with developing nations, the sources said.
Such accords would mandate that banks in both rich and poor countries cooperate in reducing remittance commissions.
Banks in rich countries charge relatively high fees when handling and converting remittances.
This has often led migrant workers to bypass them in favor of underground banks or illegal financial networks. Such underground banks have often been used to funnel money to crime syndicates and terrorist organizations, they said.
On May 27, Japanese investigative sources said police, during a probe of Frenchman Lionel Dumont, found bank accounts in Japan that might have been part of an underground bank for the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
The United States earlier forged an agreement with Mexico to cut such remittance fees, and the deal produced good results.
The G8 consists of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.