Western Union ties up with Bank of Maharashtra

Western Union, the worldwide leader in money transfer services and the Bank of Maharashtra (BoM), has entered into a strategic agreement to provide in-bound money transfer services.

Through this agreement, money transfer services from the Western Union will be available at 500 branches of BoM across the country.

"Through this new initiative, we expect to help the Non-resident Indians (NRIs) and other foreign-account customers, with their remittances, as it is very convenient and cheap," said S C Basu, chairman and managing director, BoM.

He further added that besides the non-interest income that the bank will earn, the tieup will also create new avenues for augmenting profitability.

This will give the bank an opportunity to tap into new NRI depositors, thereby increasing its client base for other products as well, which will be a welcome addition to the income generated via the Western Union product.

Basu informed that as per reports, the total foreign inward remittance to the country from NRIs summed up to $21.7 billion per year.

In the year ended March 2005, BoM handled inward remittance of $12.69 million, while the half year ending September 2005, saw remittances worth $8.49 million. He said, "We are expecting to handle an inward remittance of at least $20 million by the end of this fiscal."

Through our banking services, we are catering to about 10 million customers and expect to bag 5 million more customers within the next two years."

Further on, Basu added that BoM expected a spurt in the demand for the product by existing as well as future clients. The business growth may create a win-win situation for both, the customers as well as the bank.