- INDIA: Airtel Payments Bank Customers can soon direct
Western Union money transfer into their bank accounts 24/7, via
their app
- AFRICA: Airtel Money mobile wallet users in 14 countries
will be able to route any money transfer received, into their
wallets, and senders worldwide will be able to push funds directly
to an Airtel Money mobile wallet in real-time
Western Union, a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency
money movement and payments, and Bharti Airtel Limited, a leading
global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries
across Asia and Africa, today announced an unprecedented milestone
in global money movement across the world’s significant emerging
markets. The two industry leaders have come together to launch
real-time payments soon into millions of Airtel Payments Bank
accounts in India and Mobile Wallets across 14 countries in
Africa.
This key milestone follows the conclusion of new flagship
collaborations with two leading subsidiaries of India’s largest
integrated telecom - Bharti Airtel, namely Airtel Payments Bank,
India’s first payments bank with millions of customers and over
500K banking points across the country and Airtel Africa plc Africa
(LSE: AAF; NSE: AIRTELAFRI) (“Airtel Africa” or “Group”), a leading
provider of telecommunications and mobile money services with a
presence in 14 countries in Africa.
Western Union’s collaboration with Airtel Payments Bank in India
will offer another channel for real-time cross-border money
movement into India, the world’s largest remittance-receiving
country, according to the World Bank. Airtel Payments Bank
customers can soon direct a Western Union money transfer into their
bank accounts 24/7 via their app in real-time. Global senders can
use Western Union’s digital services in 75 countries plus
territories, or the walk-in Agent network across more than 200
countries and territories.
The collaboration with Airtel Africa will enable more than 15
million Airtel Money mobile wallet users in Nigeria, Uganda, Gabon,
Tanzania, Zambia, DRC, Malawi, Madagascar, Kenya, Congo, Niger,
Tchad, Rwanda and Seychelles to simply route any money transfer
received from across the world into their wallets. It will also
allow senders around the world to push funds directly to an Airtel
Money mobile wallet in real-time and store value or pay for goods
and services. Service launch is expected in the course of 2020.
“The future of money transfer is about customer choice –
allowing them to move money whenever, however and wherever they
want. Our platform cuts through the complexities of cross-border
money movement and payments so millions of customers can access
their funds in real-time and in a manner that suits their local
infrastructure and preferences,” said Western Union President and
CEO, Hikmet Ersek, speaking from the World Economic Forum Annual
Meeting, Davos, Switzerland.
"Our platform offers multiple channel choice for our customers
and the customers of our partners including Banks, FIs, Telecom and
Fintech players. We applaud Airtel for their global vision of
anticipating and leading change in the global digital landscape,”
Ersek said.
At the World Economic Forum
Annual Meeting, Davos, Switzerland, Hikmet Ersek will join Sunil
Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Airtel, along with Singapore
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and South Africa's Minister of
International Relations and Cooperation Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor
as part of a panel “Leading a New Multilateralism”, which focuses
on how emerging markets – including India and Africa – are changing
the nature of multilateralism.
BHARTI AIRTEL
“Collaborating with Western
Union on these two flagship initiatives in both India and Africa
reflects Bharti Airtel’s keen commitment to transform the quality
of lives of millions of people across emerging and developing
markets, providing connectivity and digital empowerment. We are
delighted to contribute to the development of a sound and inclusive
payments ecosystem in emerging markets to spur financial inclusion
and economic growth,” said Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti
Airtel.
AIRTEL PAYMENTS BANK
“We are delighted to collaborate with Western Union to add
inbound global remittances to our portfolio of digitally enabled
financial services. Our technology platforms and deep distribution
reach allows customers to access a range of financial services in a
convenient fashion. We will continue to bring to market innovative
solutions that simplify basic financial services and empower every
Indian,” said Anubrata Biswas, MD & CEO, Airtel Payments
Bank.
AIRTEL MONEY AFRICA
Raghunath Mandava, CEO of Airtel Africa, said, “We are very
excited to partner with Western Union to offer Airtel Money
customers better access to one of the world's largest money
transfer organisations. International remittances into Africa are a
lifeline to some of our customers. This partnership will give our
customers the convenience and security of directly receiving and
sending remittances from their Airtel mobile money wallets. They
will now be automatically credited and debited via their Airtel
mobile money wallets on their phone and can immediately access the
funds to pay bills or merchants and transfer funds to family and
friends or convert to cash from the widespread Airtel Money agents,
kiosks and branches.”
This tie up with Western Union adds to other tie ups that Airtel
Africa has already put in place to help customers get inflows from
across the world.
The announcement marks further expansion of Western Union’s
unique ability to partner with a growing base of national and
international tech leaders by leveraging its core assets –
including global settlement capabilities, network, compliance and
technology systems – to enable international cross-border transfers
with customer facing innovation.
Airtel Payments Bank in India and Airtel Africa adds to a host
of other partners offering receiver-directed Western Union money
transfers: eSewa in Nepal, Gcash in the Philippines, mVola in
Madagascar and Tigo in El Salvador and Guatemala. Receiver-directed
money transfer services are on the rise with flexible linkages
offered by mobile apps and wallets. It offers receiving customers
the choice of a preferred payout method based on convenience.
Western Union has more than 40 banking and payment partnerships
in over 100 countries. This robust network of relationships helps
accelerate money movement between institutions and provides
reliable connections for deposits to billions of customer accounts
and digital wallets.
INDUSTRY DATA
INDIA: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently shared their
National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI) for the period
2019-2024. The report states that digital infrastructure in the
country needs to be expanded and adoption and acceptance for
digital payments and bringing people into the fold of formal
financial system must be encouraged. Another objective of the
strategy is for every village to have access to a formal financial
service provider within a reasonable distance of 5 KM radius. The
customers may be onboarded through an easy and hassle-free digital
process and processes should be geared towards a less-paper
ecosystem.
GSMA projects that in 2025, there will be 623 million unique
mobile subscribers, 483 million mobile internet users and
penetration of smartphones will reach 66%. Sub-Saharan Africa
remains a hotbed for mobile money services. By the end of 2018,
there were 395.7 million registered mobile money accounts in the
region, representing nearly half of total global mobile money
accounts. The region is now served by more than 130 live mobile
money services, many of them led by mobile operators, and a network
of more than 1.4 million active agents.
WU-G
About Western Union
The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a global leader in
cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments. Our
omnichannel platform connects the digital and physical worlds and
makes it possible for consumers and businesses to send and receive
money and make payments with speed, ease, and reliability. As of
September 30, 2019, our network included over 550,000 retail agent
locations offering our branded services in more than 200 countries
and territories, with the capability to send money to billions of
accounts. Additionally, westernunion.com, our fastest growing
channel in 2018, is available in 75 countries, plus additional
territories, to move money around the world. With our global reach,
Western Union moves money for better, connecting family, friends
and businesses to enable financial inclusion and support economic
growth. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.
About Bharti Airtel
Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications
company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa.
Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the
top 3 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In
India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G
wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed
home broadband, DTH, enterprise services including national &
international long-distance services to carriers. In the rest of
the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G, 4G wireless services and mobile
commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 411 million customers across its
operations at the end of June 2019. To know more please visit,
www.airtel.com
About Airtel Africa
Airtel Africa (LSE: AAF; NSE: AIRTELAFRI) is a leading provider
of telecommunications and mobile money services, with a presence in
14 countries in Africa, primarily in East, Central and West Africa.
Airtel Africa offers an integrated suite of telecommunications
solutions to its subscribers, including mobile voice and data
services as well as mobile money services both nationally and
internationally. The Group aims to continue providing a simple and
intuitive customer experience through streamlined customer
journeys.
About Airtel Payments Bank
Airtel Payments Bank, India’s first payments bank that launched
in January 2017, now boasts of over 40 million+ customers and over
500K banking points across the country. In addition to having a
presence in all 29 states of India, Airtel Payments Bank also has
an app for Android and iOS users to make banking easier for its
rural and urban customers. Facilitating transactions worth INR 500
billion annually, it is focused on contributing to the government’s
vision of Digital India and Financial Inclusion by taking digital
banking services to the doorstep of every Indian, even in the
remotest of rural areas.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200122005356/en/
Media contact: Western Union Global Communications and
Social Channels Pia De Lima; Pia.DeLima@westernunion.com
Western Union Asia-Pacific Karen Santos;
Karen.Santos2@westernunion.com
Western Union Middle East and Africa Mohamed El Khalouki;
Mohamed.ElKhalouki@wu.com
Airtel Payments Bank Tanya Sachdev;
a_tanya.sachdev@airtelbank.com
Airtel Africa Kevin Soady, Kekst CNC: +44 20 3755 1600
Michael Okwiri : Michael.Okwiri@africa.airtel.com
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