
In a well-written and interesting article, The Economist describes the international cross-border remittance and money transfers market, as well as detailing some of the typical costs involved.
It mentions some of the biggest players in cross-border remittances, such as Western Union and MoneyGram, and the smaller but cheaper option Xoom, but also talks about new innovators, such as CurrencyFair ("a lot cheaper still"), M-Via and The Currency Cloud.