MoneyGram, EbixCash join hands to tap India market

The US-headquartered money transfer service provider MoneyGram and India's EbixCash on Thursday formally announced a partnership to tap the Indian market.

EbixCash will help MoneyGram scale its touch points (service outlets) considerably in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Telangana, which witness migration to the Middle East countries.

"The strategic partnership aims to service inward remittance volumes of USD 3 billion annually by targeting remitters in key sending markets outside India. EbixCash expects net revenues for EbixCash to be between USD 20 million and USD 35 million annually from this partnership once fully rolled out," the two financial service providers said in a statement.

Remittances are money or goods that migrants send back to families and friends in their countries.

With the tie-up, MoneyGram will now be able to reach additional consumers through Ebix's 3,20,000 distribution outlets spread across 768 districts, 4,000 cities, and more than 75,000 villages, significantly increasing coverage in rural areas, the statement said.

Also, customers of the EbixCash in these locations can now access the MoneyGram platform to affordably and quickly send or receive money to family and friends across over 200 countries and territories, it added.

"MoneyGram is focusing on diversification by investing in both its digital business and in key international markets such as India," said Alex Holmes, chairman and chief executive officer, MoneyGram.

"Partnering with the largest financial exchange in the country is an important milestone, and we are excited to enable EbixCash to plug into the MoneyGram platform to access our customer-centric capabilities and services," he added.

Robin Raina, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Ebix Inc, said: "We are excited with the nature of this strategic partnership which is a win-win for both sides. Being a master agent for MoneyGram, our interests will now be perfectly aligned to ensure that MoneyGram's reach is spread across the length and breadth of India through our strong franchisee network."