While the financial services industry has been digitalising at a rapid pace, the remittances market was one of the last holdouts.

As the world continues to adjust to a temporary ‘new normal’, the social impact of COVID-19 is beginning to have a significant effect on everyday behaviour, most notably in countries where governments have imposed the most severe social distancing measures. Approximately a quarter of the global population was being limited in its activity in some way when India Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that there would be a restriction of movement in the country for 21 days. This percentage may even increase in the coming weeks.

Credit cards may be over a century old — the first ‘credit cards’, which customers could use to buy on credit from shops on an approved list, were issued by the Provident Clothing Company in 1880 — but they’re still massively popular.