Fino Payments Bank's international remittance biz gets RBI nod

Fino Payments Bank received the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) approval for the commencement of its international remittance business under the Money Transfer Service Scheme (MTSS). The bank will partner up with an overseas principal for its cross-border money transfer activities. It has also received approval for its partnership with one of the largest global remittance service providers as its overseas principal.

Families of individuals, who typically remit money back home to meet regular expenses, will now be able to directly withdraw money remitted from abroad at the nearest Fino Bank neighbourhood merchant point.

Fino Bank will partner with more leading money transfer operators to widen its horizon. It also aims to commence outward remittance service soon. Chief Operating Officer Major Ashish Ahuja said, “Continuous product innovation is one of the core pillars of our model. International remittance further enhances our transactions-based product offerings. We will be ready to offer the inward remittance services to our customers by Q1 FY23. In sync with our digital strategy to enhance customer experience, we will also look at having this product on our mobile application as well.” India is expected to become the largest recipient of remittances globally with expected receipt of $87 billion, according to a recent World Bank report. This is expected to grow by 3 per cent in 2022 to $89.6 billion as a large number of workers are expected to return to the gulf countries. Major Ahuja stated that there is a major inward remittance corridor in states like Gujarat, Punjab, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. “We already have scaled up our merchant presence in all these geographies. We are therefore confident that the new offering will gain traction very quickly,” he said. As on September 30, Fino Bank had a network in excess of 8 lakh merchants across the country. They provide banking services such as opening savings accounts, depositing cash, transferring money, dispensing cash via micro-ATMs or AEPS mechanisms etc. They will now be able to offer the international remittance product too.