Vijaya Bank ties up for money transfer

Bangalore-headquartered public sector lender Vijaya Bank has entered into an agreement with global money transfer company MoneyGram to offer money transfer services at all branches of the bank.

“We will offer money transfer facility at all our branches and that will now be facilitated by MoneyGram,” Albert Tauro, chairman and managing director, Vijaya Bank, said.

Travel services company Thomas Cook and UAE Exchange will be part of the agreement to provide financial services relating to travel and money exchange, he added.

The remittances market globally is estimated to have been $400 billion during the last financial year. India is one of the major remittances market and had received around $55 billion in the last financial year from Indian diaspora.

While West Asia contributes around 27 per cent of the remittances to India, a major chunk also comes from North America.

“We want to tap this market as many of our customers send money from West Asia which is now easily remitted to their relatives in the country,” Tauro added.

Vijaya Bank has received remittances of around Rs 100 crore in the first half of the financial year and the momentum is likely to sustain, he added.

He also said that reliable money transfer services would now be available from over 190 countries.

Referring to the issue, Harsh Lambah, regional director-South Asia of MoneyGram India, said the deal would strengthen their India presence.

“We have tied up with public sector banks like Corporation Bank and Punjab National Bank for providing remittance services. After the tie-up with Vijaya Bank, our presence will rise in southern India,” he added.

Vijaya Bank posted a net profit of Rs 173 crore, up 21 per cent during April- June period of this fiscal on the back of falling cost of deposit with higher core earnings.

Th total income of the bank rose 3.8 per cent to Rs 1,520.20 crore from Rs 1,463.42 crore during the same period last year.