Digital money transfers have overtaken cash for the first time in the U.S.-to-Mexico remittance corridor, marking a shift in the world’s largest flow of cross-border family payments and intensifying pressure on traditional cash-based providers, Bloomberg reported.

The change reflects a broader move by migrants in the United States toward app-based and bank-transfer services as fintech firms including Felix Pago, Remitly, and Wise, along with cryptocurrency exchange Bitso, compete for a larger share of the Latin American remittance market, Bloomberg said. The market is worth more than $160 billion annually, with roughly $62 billion going to Mexico.

The shift has been accelerated by changing demographics, with younger users showing a stronger preference for digital transactions, and by policy shifts including a new 1-percent U.S. tax on cash remittances that does not apply to bank transfers and other digital payments, according to the report.

The industry has long been dominated by companies such as Western Union and MoneyGram, where remittances were typically sent in person and collected in cash. But digital providers are pitching lower costs and faster delivery, according to the report.

World Bank data shows the average global cost of sending remittances is about 6.4 percent, while digital transactions can fall to around 4 percent and are often completed instantly or the same day, the news outlet noted.

Read more at Bloomberg