Airtel, Western Union offer mobile money transfer service

Indian workers in other countries will soon be able to send money, less than $100, to their family back home using a mobile phone.

Bharti Airtel and Western Union have decided to jointly develop and pilot a mobile money transfer service in the country. The move is part of a global initiative by the GSM Association wherein 35 mobile operators spread across 100 countries have taken a commitment to enable the world’s 200 million international migrant workers to easily and securely send remittances to their dependents.

Here’s how it works. If an Indian working in Dubai wants to send money that’s sub USD 100 to his family in Kerala, he has to punch in the exact amount to be sent on an application on his mobile handset. The application will be provided by the mobile operator when the sender registers himself for the service.

The message is delivered through the mobile operator’s network to his local bank from where the amount is transferred to Western Union. A 16-digit identification number is generated by Western Union and delivered (either through email or SMS) to the person who sent the money in Dubai.

The sender then has to give the 16-digit number to his family in India. His family has to punch in the identification number on their Airtel mobile through a special application which can be easily downloaded on their handset.

If the receiver is a first time user, then he will also have to punch in his local bank account number. This message is sent to the nearest Western Union outlet in India, which in turn transfers the money to the receiver’s local bank account in Kerala.

However, the mobile operator in Dubai also has to have a similar tie-up with Western Union for the transaction to be completely done over mobile network. Otherwise the sender will have to physically go to a Western Union counter in Dubai and make a request though his family in India can receive the money using an Airtel mobile phone.

Bharti executives said that since it was a global initiative, such tie-ups in other countries were also taking shape. They also said that the transaction was completely secure as the local banks at either end would have done customer verification. That apart Western Union keeps details of the transaction in case any Government authority wants to track a specific money transfer.

The service is much cheaper compared to having to send money through traditional means.

The Bharti-Western Union partnership is on a pilot and awaits regulatory clearances from RBI. Bharti had earlier tied up with State Bank of India for a similar service which is expected to go commercial soon.