Purpl and Remitly unite to bring affordable remittances to Lebanon

By Leandra Monteiro

Purpl, a digital wallet and aggregator of remittance announced a partnership with Remitly, a digital financial services provider for immigrants and their families, to enable remittances to Lebanon with a better user experience and at a lower cost than brick and mortar money transfer companies.

The partnership will bring much-needed financial inclusion and democratization of remittances to Lebanon, a country that depends on over $7 billion a year of remittance flows and has become the 5th most expensive country to send money to, especially in light of the recent 98% devaluation of the Lebanese Pound.

“We are delighted to partner with Remitly to provide much needed alternative remittance routes to Lebanon with a better user experience and at a lower cost,” said Karl Naïm, co-founder & CEO of Purpl. “This partnership aligns with our mission to bring financial inclusion to the unbanked and underbanked, and we look forward to working with Remitly to bring this vision to life.”

“We will be announcing more cash out partnerships in the coming months, therefore increasing our footprint across the Lebanese territory and providing more convenience to our users”.

With this partnership, Remitly customers will be able to send remittances to beneficiaries in Lebanon who can then cash out or spend the funds digitally via Purpl. This eliminates the need for beneficiaries to have a bank account, and they can easily withdraw funds cardlessly from ATMs or traditionally over the counter.

Purpl’s partnership with Banque Libano-Française (BLF), a Lebanese bank with international presence, enables BLF to make use of the largest ATM network on the Lebanese territory to provide USD cash out to beneficiaries of these remittances, without a card and bank account and with zero fees.

“Banque Libano-Française started working with Purpl because we were aligned on common values and both keen to support the Lebanese economy by making its $7bn remittance landscape more accessible and efficient. In line with our long-standing CSR financial inclusion strategy, we were happy to partner with such an agile fintech player to create a self-sustaining eco-system for the benefit of the end consumer, notably the unbanked population. In a nutshell, sealing our partnership with Purpl and Remitly was a win for the entire industry,” said BLF Assistant General Manager and Head of Marketing, Digital & Retail, Ronald Zirka.