Development financing and the remittance market in Serbia and Switzerland

Abstract

The present study on the remittance corridor between Switzerland and Serbia and Montenegro was
commissioned to provide a basis for developing concrete projects and to gather data on
remittances from Switzerland. The deciding factor in the choice of Serbia and Montenegro was
the size and level of organization of the diaspora in Switzerland. The study was conducted by the
Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies (SFM) of the University of Neuchâtel, the
International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (EBRD) and is intended to shed light on the volume of money transfers from
Switzerland to Serbia, the costs and risks of money transfers and the channels used. At the
receiving end the study examined the question of what the remittances are used for and what
influence they have on economic growth as a whole as well as in individual recipient households.
Finally, the study also examined whether, from a legal perspective, there are impediments to
transferring remittances to Serbia and whether possibilities exist to increase the involvement of
remittance recipients in the Serbian financial sector.