Tag: India Post

Western Union, one the largest players in the multi-billion dollar remittance market, is upbeat about the growth of money transfer business in India. Western Union offers services through an extensive network in assistance with banks, post offices, and retailers. In this interview Anil Kapur, MD – South Asia, Western Union, talks about the company’s journey so far in India and challenges ahead.

NDTV: Tell us more about your growth story in remittance business in India?

Anil Kapur: There are over 200 million migrants around the world and the remittance market is estimated at nearly USD 369 billion. India in the past five years has become the largest receiver of remittances anywhere in the world beating China, Mexico and Philippines. Western Union entered India few years back seeing the growth in emerging markets like India and China.

NDTV: Why do you shifted your focus towards India?

Anil Kapur: At the start of the decade a lot of people from small parts of India were finding it difficult to get employment opportunities within cities, so they started to migrate to foreign countries and that is where you started to see the boom of Indian population in various countries. At that time the rupee was weak and people were more attracted to go abroad and send money to India, which made us to start looking at the Indian market.

As part of diversification, the Postal Department is foraying into the foreign exchange sector.

Four foreign exchange counters will be opened at the major post offices in four districts this month. It will be part of the 30 foreign exchange units being opened by the Postal Department across the country.

The foreign exchange counters in the state will be at the General Post Office at Pulimoodu in Thiruvananthapuram and at the head post offices at Ernakulam, Thrissur and Kozhikode, Postal Services director Mervin Alexander told this website’s newspaper.

“Work on starting the counters is going on and we hope to inaugurate them this month itself,” he said.

Among the 30 counters spread in ten states, three had already started functioning at New Delhi and are receiving good response, he said.

“Initially we are only providing currency exchange and travellers’ cheque encashing services. Our main target will be foreign tourists. After knowing the response, more counters will be opened and more services will be offered,” he said.

The Postal Department, which already had money changing services licence of the Reserve Bank of India, is launching the service in association with the Centurion Bank of Punjab. A memorandum of understanding was signed between the department and the bank at the national- level recently. The bank will provide the back office support for the counters and training to the Postal Department staff, Mervin said.

The Postal Department is already carrying out Western Union Money Transfer Services. More than 50 percent of Western Union Money Transfer Services are being done through the Postal Department.