Airtel to tie up with banks for money transfers

To facilitate transfers through Western Union.

Bharti Airtel is looking to tie-up with private banks to offer money transfer facilities through the Western Union Money Transfer (WUMT), an international money transferring system, through their mobile handsets.

The telecom operator will soon offer the services to its subscribers, said Sharlin Thayil, Chief Operating Officer, Airtel Gujarat circle.

"We are in talks with several banks for tie-ups for money transfers through the Western Union Money Transfer," said Thayil, refusing to divulge further details.

Explaining the usage of the service, Thayil said that the subscribers will be required to download a software that facilitates money transfers on GPRS-enabled mobile handsets.

The subscribers would then be required to punch in their account number and authenticate their profile.

"The software comes with very high safeguards and the subscribers would be provided a personal identification number (PIN) to transfer the money through their handsets," said Thayil.

He said that Airtel is still working on the nitty-gritties of downloading the software and tying-up with several private banks.

Airtel has been regularly making new additions to its repertoire of value added services (VAS).

Recently, the company launched an infoline service which enables a subscriber to secure information on services like health, education, transport and such other facilities. For the infoline service, Airtel subscribers will be required to dial 55,000.

"By introducing such VAS, we are demonstrating our focus on customer-based telecom operations. We keep a track of what our subscribers need and try to provide them in the best manner," said Thayil.

With its focus on more such VAS, Airtel intends to increase the VAS usage among its subscribers from the present 70 per cent, added Thayil.