Muthoot Finance launches Western Union money transfer service

NEW DELHI: Gold finance company Muthoot Finance today said it has tied up with the Western Union Company and Paul Merchant Limited for providing money transfer services through various branches of the company across the country.

"Muthoot Finance will now offer Western Union Money Transfer services from its countrywide network of 2,800 locations linking them to Western Union's network of more than 40,000 locations across 200 countries," Muthoot Finance said in a statement.

According to the World Bank's migration and remittance fact book for 2011, India continues to be the largest remittance receiving country in the world with an estimated USD 55 billion received during the year 2010.

"...With the addition of Muthoot Finance, we hope to further reinforce our national brand presence through Muthoot Finance's extensive network of over 2,800 branches across India shortly," Managing Director-South and East Asia, Western Union Anil Kapur said in a statement.

Echoing Kapur's view, Chairman and Managing Director of Paul Merchants Limited S Paul said,"Through our agreement with Western Union we have facilitated a number of classes of trade including retail and banks to offer Western Union Money Transfer services to remotest corner of India."

The collaboration with Mutthoot Finance is one step in this direction which would positively impact people across 2,800 branches offering the service, he added.

The Western Union Company provides consumers and businesses ways to send and receive money around the world and its agent network in India currently spans over 71,000 agent locations.