International Money Express, Inc. (Intermex) operates as an omnichannel money remittance services company focused primarily on the United States of America (United States or U.S.) to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) corridor, which includes Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean.
The company also provides its remittance services to Africa and Asia from the United States and offers sending services from Canada to Latin America and Africa. Also, through recent acquisitions, the...
International Money Express, Inc. (Intermex) operates as an omnichannel money remittance services company focused primarily on the United States of America (United States or U.S.) to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) corridor, which includes Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean.
The company also provides its remittance services to Africa and Asia from the United States and offers sending services from Canada to Latin America and Africa. Also, through recent acquisitions, the company provides remittance services from Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The company utilizes its proprietary technology to deliver convenient, reliable, and value-added services to consumers through a broad network of sending and paying agents. The company's remittance services, which include a comprehensive suite of ancillary financial processing solutions and payment services, are available in all 50 states in the U.S., Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and 13 provinces in Canada, as well as in certain locations in Spain, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom, where consumers can send money to beneficiaries in more than 60 countries in LAC, Africa, Asia, and Europe. The company's services are accessible in person through over 100,000 independent sending and paying agents and company-operated stores, as well as online and via Internet-enabled mobile devices. Additionally, the company's product and service portfolio include online payment options, pre-paid debit cards, and direct deposit payroll cards, which may present different cost, demand, regulatory, and risk profiles relative to its core money remittance business.
Money remittance services to LAC countries, mainly Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic, are the primary source of the company's revenue. These services involve the movement of funds on behalf of an originating consumer for receipt by a designated beneficiary at a designated receiving location. The company's remittances to LAC countries are primarily generated in the United States by consumers with roots in Latin American and Caribbean countries, many of whom do not have an existing relationship with a traditional full-service financial institution capable of providing the services the company offers. The company provides these consumers with flexibility and convenience to help them meet their financial needs. The company generates money remittance revenue from fees paid by consumers (i.e., the senders of funds), which it shares with its sending agents in the originating country and its paying agents in the destination country. Remittances paid in local currencies that are not pegged to the U.S. dollar, Canadian dollar, Euro, or British Pound can also generate revenue if the company is successful in its daily management of currency exchange spreads. The company also generates revenue from its wire as a service relationships with digital partners where the company receives a fee for facilitating money transfers processed through its proprietary software systems, using its money transmitter licenses and payer network relationships.
The company's money remittance services enable consumers to send funds through its broad network of locations in the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany, that are primarily operated by third-party businesses, as well as through its company-operated stores located in those jurisdictions. Transactions are processed, and payment is collected by the company's agents (sending agent(s)), and those funds become available for pickup by the beneficiary at the designated destination, usually within minutes, at any Intermex payer location (paying agent(s)). The company refers to its sending agents and its paying agents collectively as agents. In addition, the company's services are offered digitally through intermexonline.com, online.i-transfer.es, and via Internet-enabled mobile devices.
Growth Strategy
The company's growth strategies are to invest in the marketing and adoption of its digital channels and value-added services to expand its customer base and revenue generation; expand its market share in its largest corridors; and expand its services into new corridors and emerging markets.
Segments
The company’s business is organized around one reportable segment that provides money remittance services primarily between the U.S. and Canada to Mexico, Guatemala and other countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia through a network of authorized agents located in various unaffiliated retail establishments and company-operated stores throughout the U.S., Canada, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany, as well as digitally through the Internet via its websites and mobile device applications.
Operations and Services
The majority of the company's money remittance transactions are generated through its agent network of retail locations and company-operated stores, where the transaction is processed, and payment is collected by its sending agent. Those funds become available for pickup by the beneficiary at the designated receiving destination, usually within minutes, at any Intermex payer location. In select countries, the designated recipient may also receive the remitted funds via a deposit directly to the recipient’s bank account, debit cards, mobile wallets, and home delivery in selected markets. The company's locations in the United States, Canada, Spain, and Italy, also referred to as its sending agents, tend to be individual establishments, such as multi-service stores, grocery stores, convenience stores, bodegas, and other retail locations. The company's payers in LAC countries are referred to as paying agents, and generally consist of large banks and financial institutions or large retail chains. Grupo Elektra, S.A.B. de C.V. (Elektra) is the company's largest paying agent and processes a significant portion of remittances in the LAC corridor. Each of the company's sending agents and its paying agents are primarily operated by third-party businesses where its money remittance services are offered.
Additionally, the company operates a number of retail locations in the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany, which it refers to as company-operated stores, where its money remittance services are available. The company also operates subsidiary payer networks in Mexico under the Pago Express brand and in Guatemala under the Intermex brand. These networks provide coverage of payer locations that reach some of the most remote areas in those countries, providing increased convenience to consumers in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Guatemala.
At sending agent locations, consumers may initiate a transaction directly with an agent, or through a direct-dialed telephone conversation from the agent location to the company's call centers. Many of the company's sending agents operate in locations that are open outside of traditional banking hours, including nights and weekends. The company's sending agents understand the markets that they serve and coordinate with the company's sales and marketing teams to develop business plans for those markets. The company holds promotional events for its sending agents to help familiarize them with its brand and to incentivize the agents to promote the company's services to consumers.
The company's money remittance services are also available on the Internet via its websites (intermexonline.com and online.i-transfer.es) and mobile device applications, enabling consumers to send money conveniently 24 hours a day from their computer or mobile devices. Consumers are able to select from a variety of sending methods, including cash pickup at thousands of locations, direct deposit into bank accounts, debit cards, mobile wallets, and home delivery in selected markets. Also, the company's enhanced digital mobile money remittance applications provide consumers with safe, easy-to-use features for remitting funds with a debit or credit card. The company's internet-based money transmission services and digital channel offerings continue to grow at a faster pace compared to its services provided by its network of sending agents or company-operated stores.
The company maintains call centers in Mexico and Guatemala, providing call center services 365 days per year and customer service in English, French, Italian, and Spanish, as well as the possibility of service in many of the regional dialects that its customers speak. The company's call centers are able to provide customer service for inbound customer calls and have technology available for direct calls from customers at its agent locations in processing remittance transactions.
Cash Management Bank Relationships
The company buys and sells a number of global currencies and maintains a network of settlement accounts to facilitate the timely funding of money remittances and foreign exchange trades. Its relationships with clearing, check processing, trading, and exchange rate and cash management banks are critical to an efficient and reliable remittance network. The company benefits from its strong and long-term relationships with a number of large banks and financial institutions. The company maintains strong relationships with a number of other national and regional banking and financial institutions in the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Latin America. In addition, the company has benefited from its long relationship with US Bank, which manages its main operating account, and from strong relationships with Wells Fargo and Bank of America, which serve as its primary banks for exchange rate management with respect to the foreign currencies in which it transacts.
Information Technology
All of the company's money processing software used in the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Canada is proprietary and has been developed primarily by its internal software development team. The company's money processing software acts as a point of its sale for its money remittance transactions and incorporates real-time compliance functionality, which improves its regulatory compliance and helps to minimize fraud. The company's money processing software is critical to its operations, while its back-office software is critical for settling its transactions.
Also, the company's money remittance platforms enable consumers to send funds through the Internet via its websites (intermexonline.com and online.i-transfer.es) and mobile device applications from consumers' computers or mobile devices. The company's enhanced digital mobile money remittance applications provide consumers with safe and easy-to-use features for remitting funds.
In addition to the company's money remittance software, digital platforms, and mobile applications, it continues to develop programs and defenses against cyber-attacks. The foundation of the company's cybersecurity program is based on recognized best practices and standards for cybersecurity and information technology, that include the Center of Internet Security (CIS) Critical Security Controls Framework. The CIS Critical Security Controls Framework is a prioritized set of safeguards to mitigate the most prevalent cyber-attacks against systems and networks. The company utilizes a number of third-party vendors and automated tools that monitor its systems and inform it of any attempted attacks.
In addition to the company's proprietary and internally developed software systems, it utilizes historical and predictive data to analyze market trends, performance of market territories, agent performance, and consumer habits in real time.
The company continually invests in its technology platforms to ensure they have the capacity to handle traffic well in excess of the number of transactions it processes. A load balancing configuration between tier-1 data centers, in addition to failover redundancy, provides uptime performance. The company's technology platforms have experienced limited downtime, with its 2024 downtime being less than 0.05%.
The company's Transaction Processing Engine (TPE) allows it to process money remittances reliably and quickly by leveraging a proprietary rules engine to apply granular-level product feature customization. The TPE also utilizes real-time risk management algorithms to improve its regulatory compliance and help to minimize fraud.
The company's internally developed and proprietary payer Application Programming Interface (API) platform securely and efficiently integrates its Transaction Processing Engine (TPE) directly with the platforms of its paying agents, allowing it to rapidly deliver money remittances to its paying agents while optimizing the efficiency and speed of adding new payers to its network and integrating payers’ software and systems with its software and systems.
Intellectual Property
The Intermex brand is critical to the company’s business. The company uses various trademarks and service marks in its business, including, but not limited to, Intermex, International Money Express, IntermexDirect, CheckDirect, La Nacional, Amigo Paisano and Pago Express, some of which are registered in the United States and other countries.
Sales and Marketing
The majority of the company's money remittance transactions are generated through its agent network of retail locations and company-operated stores, where the transaction is processed and payment is collected by its sending agent or store. Sending agent locations include multi-service stores, grocery stores, convenience stores, bodegas, and other retail locations. The vast majority of the company's sending agents are provided access to its proprietary money remittance software systems, while others have access to its combination telephone and fax/tablet setup, which it calls telewire, enabling direct access to its call centers for money remittance services.
In all of the company's independent sending agent locations, the agent provides the physical infrastructure and staff required to complete the remittances, while the company provides the central operating functions, such as transaction processing, settlement, marketing support, compliance training and support, and customer relationship management. The company also maintains various company-operated stores in the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The company retains customer data, which enables it to increase repeat customer usage, track and effectively recapture one-time users of its service, and improve sending agent productivity.
The company markets its services to consumers in a number of ways, including directly and indirectly through the company's sending agents and paying agents, promotional activities, traditional media and digital advertising.
Government Regulation
As a non-bank financial institution in the United States, the company is regulated by the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Department of Banking and Finance of the State of Florida, and the equivalent regulatory authorities in all of the states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, in which it holds an operating money transmission license. The company is duly registered as a Money Services Business (MSB) with FinCEN, the financial intelligence unit of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
The company is also subject to a wide range of regulations in the United States and other countries in which it operates, such as Spain and the United Kingdom, including: minimum capital or capital adequacy requirements; safeguarding of customers' funds; anti-money laundering laws and regulations; financial services regulations; currency control regulations; anti-bribery laws; money transfer and payment instrument licensing laws; escheatment laws; privacy, data protection, and information security laws, such as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA); and consumer disclosure and consumer protection laws, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the Colorado Privacy Act (CPA).
The company's money remittance services are subject to anti-money laundering laws and regulations of the United States, including the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), as amended by the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, as well as state laws and regulations and the anti-money laundering laws and regulations in many of the countries in which it operates.
In the United States, the company is subject to various federal privacy laws, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which requires that financial institutions provide consumers with privacy notices and have in place policies and procedures regarding the safeguarding of personal information.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd-Frank Act) imposes additional regulatory requirements and creates additional regulatory oversight over the company. The Dodd-Frank Act established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which issues and enforces consumer protection initiatives governing financial products and services, including money remittance services, in the United States through the CFPB’s Remittance Transfer Rule.
Furthermore, as the company’s operations and services involve the collection, storage, and processing of personal data of consumers globally, the company is subject to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and similar data protection laws outside the United States.
The company's communications, advertising and sales practices and that of its agent network are subject to regulation by, among other things, state and federal consumer protection laws including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ('TCPA').
The company is subject to regulations imposed by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (the 'FCPA') in the United States and similar anti-bribery laws in other jurisdictions. The company maintains a compliance program designed to comply with anti-bribery laws and regulations applicable to its business.
Competition
The company competes with larger companies, such as The Western Union Company ('Western Union'), MoneyGram International, Inc. ('MoneyGram'), Remitly Global, Inc. ('Remitly'), and Euronet Worldwide Inc. ('Euronet').
History
International Money Express, Inc. was founded in 1994.
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