UAE’s Etisalat SMS money transfer service to India from June
From June onwards, UAE-based Indian workers can send money home through a short message service (SMS) on their mobile phones with connection to the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, called Etisalat. Consumers will be given an m-wallet on to which money can be transferred from their partner-bank accounts.
The service will be extended by the end of this year to include the Philippines, Egypt and Pakistan. The next in line are Jordan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, working in the order of migrant workforce in the UAE.
The pilot service is currently partnering with Mashreq Bank, UAE’s largest private bank, and Indian businesses Tata Communications, Idea Cellular and HSBC India and remittances may be received at 40,000 bank branches across India.
The UAE has 150 per cent mobile-phone market penetration or 6.4 million cellular phones in use. Money remitted by UAE expatriates through the banking system is estimated at Dh25.7 billion (USD 7 billion) in 2005.
From June onwards, UAE-based Indian workers can send money home through a short message service (SMS) on their mobile phones with connection to the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, called Etisalat. Consumers will be given an m-wallet on to which money can be transferred from their partner-bank accounts.
The service will be extended by the end of this year to include the Philippines, Egypt and Pakistan. The next in line are Jordan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, working in the order of migrant workforce in the UAE.
The pilot service is currently partnering with Mashreq Bank, UAE’s largest private bank, and Indian businesses Tata Communications, Idea Cellular and HSBC India and remittances may be received at 40,000 bank branches across India.
The UAE has 150 per cent mobile-phone market penetration or 6.4 million cellular phones in use. Money remitted by UAE expatriates through the banking system is estimated at Dh25.7 billion (USD 7 billion) in 2005.
