Accountholders Soon to Have Choice to Pull Western Union® Money TransferSM transactions into Their Accounts via Mobile Phones
Western Union (NYSE:WU), a leader in global payment services, and State Bank of India (SBI), the largest commercial bank in India, today announced that SBI accountholders will soon be able to receive cross-border money transfers in their bank accounts using just their mobile phones.
In July, Western Union announced the introduction of the Account-Based Money Transfer (ABMT) service, to be launched in early 2011. This service will enable SBI customers with online bank accounts to pull a Western Union® Money TransferSM transactions directly into their accounts via the Internet. The new mobile service will provide SBI customers with an additional option to direct a Western Union Money Transfer transaction into their accounts anytime and anywhere.
"India is a key market for Western Union," said Anil Kapur, Western Union's Managing Director for South and Southeast Asia. "It is the world's No. 1 remittance recipient country and received US$52 billion in 2009, according to the World Bank. "Western Union has more than 61,000* Agent locations in India. As we continue to expand our network, this collaboration with SBI realizes our commitment to provide our consumers with the greater convenience of accessing money sent by their families and loved ones from overseas."
Kiran Shetty, Western Union’s Regional Vice President for India, said, "Western Union is committed to offering a wide variety of ways for our consumers to receive money in India. By leveraging our global 'hub' for moving money, we are able to continually offer new and innovative choices for SBI customers to transfer their money from Western Union directly into their accounts through mobile phones."
SBI has 110 million accountholders, of which more than 4 million are registered for online banking. Western Union's Account-Based Money Transfer service complements SBI's nationwide network of more than 12,000 branches currently offering the Western Union Money Transfer service.
With this agreement with SBI, consumers will be able to send money from one of Western Union's 380,000* Agent locations around the world to an SBI account.