Western Union ups rural reach, ropes in Bandhan Microfinance

As part of its efforts to increase its rural business, money transfer services leader Western Union has roped in leading microfinance firm Bandhan to hawk its service across the hinterlands.

Under an agreement inked between Western Union India's principal agent Weizmann Forex and Bandhan in Kolkata today, the microfiance firm will activate 800 of its locations by the year-end, a Western Union release said here today.

"With the addition of Bandhan, which has a customer base of over 2.8 million, we hope to further reinforce our rural presence shortly," Western Union Managing Director for South and Southeast Asia Anil Kapur said, adding the alliance further reinforces our outreach to rural consumers helping them in turn to access global money transfer services.

Bandhan Chairman Chandra Shekhar Ghosh said: "This tie-up means our over 1,500 network across rural areas will henceforth link the remotest of villages to an unbeatable international network."

According to the RBI data, the country received over $52 billion in remittances in the past fiscal, out of which 38 per cent came from North America followed by the Gulf markets at 27 per cent and Europe at 18 per cent. Remittances account for over 4 per cent of the GDP.

The Kolkata-based Bandhan was set up in 2002 and operates in 17 states, mainly serving Eastern and NE states through a network of over 1,500 branches. It has a cumulative loan disbursement of Rs 6,171 crore till date and as on July 31, 2010 its loan outstanding stood at Rs 1,670 crore.