Tag: HSBC

Remittances through post offices

Posted by | Jun 8, 2008 | |

The Postal Department is discussing with a remittance service and a private commercial bank to introduce remittance services in postal outlets.

The Department operates some 650 post offices and 3,500 sub-post offices islandwide.

The service providers with whom the Department is having discussions are Western Union (WU) Money Transfer Service and DFCC Vardhana Bank (DVB).

Posts Minister Mahinda Wijesekera speaking at the Postal Department Hqrs., Bldg., on Wednesday said that the necessary space available for such banking operations will be rented out to them.

The Minister said that the Department made a Rs. 2.3 billion loss last year. Its expenditure this year is forecast at Rs. eight billion, and next year, Rs. 10 billion.

“Such steps will help us to mitigate such losses through the rent income received,” said Wijesekera.

The Department has some 19,000 employees.

At present, still the main types of remittance service in the country are the traditional telegraphic transfer systems and bank drafts which are costly, WU Sri Lanka Marketing Manager Imran Carim told The Sunday Leader.

The Postal Department also has a tie-up with HSBC for credit card settlements.

“We will be negotiating with other banks, to get them also into this scheme,” Posts Ministry Secretary W.M. Piyasena told The Sunday Leader.

He said that the Department was talking to Moratuwa University and Dialog Telekom for networking of their branches and utility bills settlements, by the consumer making use of the Department’s islandwide postal network to make those payments which will be transmitted electronically.

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UAE’s Etisalat SMS money transfer service to India from June

Posted by | Apr 1, 2008 | |

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.

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Saudi mobile market set to grow by 130pc

Posted by | Nov 27, 2007 | |

Mobile telephone penetration in Saudi Arabia is expected to grow 130 per cent in the next five years, according to a report by HSBC on the performance of Mobily (Etihad Etisalat) in the Kingdom after two years in operation.

The country is regarded as one of the most attractive markets in the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) region with penetration rates among the lowest at 82 per cent of the population for mobile as of first half of 2006, and just 2 per cent for broadband penetration, the report said.

The report explained that as the largest and richest market in the region, its strong macroeconomic factors such as high GDP per capita, rising income levels and a relatively young, fast-growing population should guarantee relatively decent growth in communication spending.

It added that a reduction in handset prices and tariff rebalancing as a result of the ongoing liberalisation of the telecoms markets should also further boost usage and demand for services.

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Many banks and card companies to be sympathetic over postal delays

Posted by | Aug 9, 2007 | |

A number of banks and credit card companies in the UK have stated that they intend to be sympathetic with customers who may have suffered as a result of the postal strikes in terms of payments coming in late because of the postal delays.

Although banks have suffered a fair amount of bad press lately some of the leading banks and credit card companies stated that they would take the postal strikes into account when it came to customers’ accounts.

The postal strikes were set to go on for two week in total, and this means that those paying by cheque will find that their payments may be delayed, which could result in their bank accounts exceeding the overdraft limit or their credit cards going over the credit limit due to late payment.

Banks and credit card companies are urging consumers that experience this problem to contact them, stating that they will ensure that they are sympathetic when it comes to the removal of charges that were applied as a result of late payment because of postal delays.

Consumers are warned that trying to dupe the banks into thinking that payment is late because of postal strikes will not be easy.

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Royal Mail delays drawing on funds for modernisation

Posted by | May 26, 2007 | |

Royal Mail has yet to draw on a Pounds 1.2bn loan made available to automate its operations under a new financing framework arran-ged more than a year ago.

The investment package announced last May by Alistair Darling, trade and industry secretary, was intended to help Royal Mail compete against the new breed of private-sector postal operators after it lost its monopoly at the start of 2006.

But although big business mail users are deserting Royal Mail in droves, Britain’s dominant postal operator has failed to take advantage of the new system. HSBC and Lloyds TSB are the latest to shift their bulk mailings to UK Mail, part of the Business Post Group.

News that TNT, one of Royal Mail’s biggest rivals, has been granted the right to launch a legal challenge over the state group’s exemption from VAT will come as another blow.

The fall in business customers and the growing competition from its rivals are not the only problems for Royal Mail. The number of items of mail fell last year for the first time in decades, with most in the industry expecting further declines in the future as email and other digital messaging systems replace “snail mail”.

In addition the government has been unable to find a high-profile business executive from the private sector to be deputy chairman and succeed Allan Leighton as chairman next year. And now the postal union is balloting members on a strike over this year’s pay offer, warning of more fights ahead over changes in working practices, staff cuts and the plan to close the pension scheme to new entrants.

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