Q COSTARICA — Current market conditions could allow remittance companies to be used to launder millions of dollars from illegal activities, according to the General Superintendency of Financial Entities (SUGEF).
These types of companies have difficulty tracing the origin of funds and identifying clients who use their services to send money to Costa Rica, according to a report prepared by consultant Jorge Santiago Fernández-Ordás Llamas and available on the institution’s website.
“This weakness in the preventative framework translates into the ability to identify and report suspicious transactions, making it difficult to identify patterns of recurring individuals operating with criminal networks and to trace the money,” adds the executive summary of the report, “National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction.”
The information was published by the newspaper La Nación last week, which notes that the study was conducted in 2024, but was only made public this year, specifically in April.
Costa Rica receives almost four times more funds through remittance companies than it sends abroad through these channels.
According to the Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR), Costa Rica operates as both a recipient and a sender of personal funds:
- Inbound (United States): The primary source of incoming family money. Costa Rican emigrants living in the U.S. send an average of US$504 per month back home.
- Outbound (Nicaragua): Costa Rica acts as a major hub for South-South migration corridors. Nicaraguan immigrants living in Costa Rica send a significant portion of their income back to Nicaragua, averaging US$155 per month.
Common methods for sending money to Costa Rica include mainstream platforms such as Xoom, excellent for instant deposits, and WorldRemit, which allows users to link bank accounts or debit cards to bypass physical cash fees.
Funds can be wired straight into major local financial institutions such as BAC San José or the Banco Nacional (BN) using standard routing information.
Western Union & MoneyGram, for example, are ideal if your recipient prefers picking up physical cash or if they do not have a bank account.