Western Union increase business in rural areas.
2008-06-02
Western Union is doing 60% of its business in India to rural and semi-urban areas according to Anil Kapur, their Managing Director.
Last year saw an increase of 70% to these areas which has resulted in a sharp rethink of their marketing strategy. "Catch them before they leave the country," is the new aim Mr. Akpur said.
Marketing campaigns are targetting rural railway and bus stations to catch villagers as they are leaving their homes to go and work abroad.
Recent partnerships with banks and India post has led to a huge increase in the available outlets, increasing from 3000 in 2001, to 50,000 locations currently. Especially the availability of Western Union through post offices has meant that even the remotest areas are being served.
Ghana encouraging ex-pat remittances
2008-06-02
Ghana's Finance Minister, Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, has asked banks in Ghana to come up with new and innovative products to encourage remittance in to the country.
He estimated that between 4 and 6 million Ghanaians were outside of the country, and that remittance from them had great potential for growth.
“Banks are expected to have products that will attract more remittances. Clients could be advised to invest in short and medium-term instruments such as mutual funds, stock-exchange listed securities and government treasury bills to enhance development in the country,” he said.
These comments came at the launch of the Money Gram services to be offered by Merchant Bank Ghana.
Paul Baah-Sackey, Managing Director of Merchant Bank in his own address said, “The coming on board of MoneyGram does not only enhance our menu of remittance products but increases our ability to serve Ghanaians in over 180 countries.”
More on this story can be found at Modern Ghana.
Money transfer company sees 53% growth in business
2008-06-02
iRemit Inc, Phillipines largest non-bank money transfer company, said on Monday that it had seen an increase in remittances handled by them by 53% in the first quarter of the year.
The company said volumes increased from $158.5 million in the first quarter of 2007 to $242.9 million this year. The largest growths were in the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and North America.
"Performance highlights in the company's strong growth include the addition of a number of significant new customers of its foreign offices and the domestic transactions such as manning agencies and shipping companies. Also during the quarter, iRemit added more pay-out centers which to date have reached more than 2,800," said iRemit president, Harris Jacildo.
Last year saw an increase of 37% over 2006, with an increase from $555.6 million to $762.3 million in 2007.
The company operates in 25 countries through partnerships, and has a network of 2,814 agencies throughout the Philippines.
For more on this story, see ABS-CBN.
Remittances to Phillipines $4B in first quarter
2008-05-29
The amount of money sent home by Filipino's working abroad has risen in the first quarter of 2008 by 13% to $4 billion compared to $3.5 billion last year according to figure released by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
"Remittances during the first three months of 2008 reflected the rising number of Filipino workers abroad, the shifts in skill composition as well as the growing efficiency of banks and other financial institutions as remittance channels," BSP said.
BSP also said that volumes have increased because of new partnerships between domestic banks and money transfer firms to promote faster delivery of remittances to beneficiaries.
The majority of money continues to be transfered from US, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
For more on this news story, see ABS-CBN.
Bangladeshi Bank partner with Placid NK in the US
2008-05-29
The Social Investment Bank of Bangladesh has announced the signing of a partnership deal with Placid NK Corporation of the US.
The deal will allow Placid NK's customers to send remittances via the banks network of branches.
Social Investment Bank of Bangladesh currently have 24 throught Bangladesh.
For more on this story, visit All Headline News.
Al Fardan Exchange and Xpress Money sign deal
2008-05-29
Al Fardan Exchange, a large remittance company in UAE have signed a deal with Xpress Money, an global money transfer company.
Al Fardan Exchange will provide transfer via Xpress Money at all their branches throughout the UAE.
Chief Operating Officer and General Manager of Xpress Money, Sudhir Kumar Shetty, said this action was part of their principal strategy to bring enhanced services in all areas of money transfer.
Shetty said, "The company has been continually identifying the best brands in the market for partnerships, and Xpress Money was the right choice in instant money transfers, as it is a popular brand with increasing acceptance among customers in UAE. This relationship should increase the business volumes and help bring new customers to the exchange."
Shetty also said that they are continuing to sign agreements with key players in the remittance market. He also said that the agreement with Al Fardan would take them a long way to achieving their goals.
RemitONE helps reduce money laundering
2008-05-29
RemitONE anti-money laundering and agent control features help to reduce money-laundering.
With in-built safeguards that cannot be overridden, RemitONE ensures that all suspect transactions are flagged for checking.
This means that agents cannot be complicit in money-laundering and pass transactions through that should have been blocked. If they do, then HQ will have the transaction automatically flagged.
In addition RemitONE can do OFAC and Bank of England blacklist checking, and can add others on request.
All these features come as standard for the all-inclusive monthly fee so contact RemitONE now and arrange a demo on 020 8099 5795.
Offer transfer to anywhere with RemitONE
2008-05-20
Many transfer companies are limited by their own lack of contacts abroad. For example, if you specialise in transfer to Georgia, then the chances are that's the only place you have contacts and can offer competitive rates.
If you want to transfer to other countries then you either can't do it, or you have to become an agent for somebody else such as Western Union.
If you become an agent for Western Union then you have to maintain two systems, you can't do accounting easily as you have to work with two sets of figures, and worst of all, you can't pass this service on easily to your agents.
RemitONE allows you to integrate with third-party transfer companies such as Instant Cash and Money Gram. Since the integration is done on the server, your agents only see your branded service, they never know whether this transaction is being handled directly by you or is going through another company.
You can also decide which system to use for each country, so if you have integrated with ExpressMoney, and they have a special offer giving better rates to your home country than you can, then you can switch to using ExpressMoney at the touch of a button, and your agents won't see any change. More complex control is available such as time based routing, so if one supplier gives better rates at certain times then that can be configured so transactions take the most profitable route.
Accounting is all integrated so you can see what your total profits are, or you can view direct transactions seperately from third-party transactions.
RemitONE's advanced reporting will allow you to see which countries are the most popular and that helps you decide which country you would want to expand to next.
And finally, RemitONE is able to allow third-party companies to integrate with you. So for example you have a great deal in place with your home country. MoneyGram want to send their transactions to your home country via you. Well now they can. RemitONE will integrate with their systems and allow them to send transactions via you.
With RemitONE you can:
- Integrate with third-party remittance companies to offer service to all their destinations.
- Allow third-party companies to integrate with you directly so you can offer all your destinations to them.
- Have combined accounting.
- Offer a self-branded service to your agents that takes advantage of other remittance companies.
- Always see what you profit truly is.
For more information and to book a demo call (+44) 020 8099 5795 today.
TIGRA and Virtual Money Inc. strike deal
2008-05-16
TIGRA, the Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action, an immigrant advocacy group, has struck a deal with Virtual Money Inc. of Texas, USA, to offer cheaper money transfer services.
The agreement sets out a new fee charging structure that could see prices that are 20% lower than the norm for sending money abroad. It also sets out a plan for ethical investments in community projects.
TIGRA's executive director said, "This is the standard we want for the whole industry. It has to have a community redevelopment standard that says 'we are committed to the communities that we benefit from and that part of our profit has to go back to those communities'. Virtual Money is the first one to step up."
Virtual Money is reducing its costs by using automation. The company issuses ATM cards directly to its customers which are then used to transfer and check funds.
Lucky Money Inc. expand in to South America
2008-05-16
Lucky Money Inc., a long established money transfer company specialising in sending money to the Phillipines has announced expansion in to the South American market.
In partnering with TransferOrbit, they will have access to a network of 17,000 agents across the continent.
"Having gained the trust and confidence of our existing client base, we have decided the time was right to broaden our reach and provide the same fast, secure and reliable remittance services to the Latin American community", said Ruell Medina, COO of Lucky Money.
The full press release is available at Business Wire.
