Western Union and State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday said their account holders will soon be able to use mobile phones to route overseas money transfers directly into their bank accounts.
Western Union had in July announced the introduction of its account-based money transfer (ABMT) service, to be launched in early-2011. It enables SBI customers with online bank accounts to route Western Union money transfers directly into their accounts via the Internet.
The new mobile service will provide customers with an additional option to direct Western Union money transfers into their accounts anytime and anywhere, a press release issued stated.
"India is a key market for us," Western Union's Managing Director (South and South-East Asia) Anil Kapur said.
"We have more than 61,000 agent locations in India. As we continue to expand our network, this collaboration with SBI realises our commitment to provide our consumers with greater convenience of accessing money sent by their families and loved ones from overseas," he said.
SBI has 110 million account holders, of which more than four million are registered for online banking. Western Union's account-based money transfer service complements the bank's nationwide network of more than 12,000 branches currently offering Western Union money transfer services.
Western Union Regional Vice-President for India Kiran Shetty said: "By leveraging our global 'hub' for moving money, we are able to continually offer new and innovative choices for customers to transfer their money from Western Union directly into their accounts through mobile phones."
The agreement between SBI and Western Union will enable consumers to send money from any of Western Union's 3,80,000 agent locations abroad directly to an SBI account.
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