Western Union Unveils Global and Domestic Direct-to-bank Transfers to Indian Banks
Western Union is launching direct-to-bank money transfers to bank accounts in India for consumers in the US and UK, which traditionally have large Indian communities and strong links to the country, as part of an increased focus on India.
The direct-to-bank transactions to banks in India can be sent online via Western Union’s transactional websites and additionally via a smartphone app in the US. Alternatively users can visit thousands of participating agent locations. A new correspondent banking relationship has been set up with Kotak Mahindra Bank in India to handle the expected agent-activated volumes.
Officiating at the formal announcement ceremony in Mumbai, India, Western Union’s president and chief executive officer (CEO), Hikmet Ersek, said: “Our goal is to serve our consumers anytime and anywhere. To achieve this, we are pursuing a multi-product, multi-channel strategy to enable consumers to manage their finances the way they want.”
Ersek continued, “It is a phenomenal achievement for Western Union consumers to be able to send international money transfers directly into bank accounts in up to 48 countries, now including India. Thanks also to our relationship with Kotak Mahindra Bank; as a business correspondent, we have the potential to use more than half of our agent locations to send domestic money transfers directly into India’s banking network.”