Western Union, Zain team up on money transfers
BARCELONA, June 23 (Reuters) - Global money-transfer giant Western Union (WU.N) and Kuwaiti mobile operator Zain (ZAIN.KW) said on Tuesday they were teaming up to let customers send money to and from mobile phones around the Middle East and Africa.
Zain customers will be able to deposit cash with Western Union via Zain's new Zap service instead of in person at a Western Union branch, and the recipients can choose either to pick up the cash from Western Union or have it transferred to an account tied to their mobile phone.
Out of these so-called mobile wallets, customers can take their cash out at Zap agents, top up airtime, transfer it to friends and family, pay bills or buy groceries at the supermarket.
The service is seen as particularly useful for people working abroad who want to send remittances home, where one or both parties has no easy access to Western Union or other physical money-transfer outlets.
"This service will enable the millions of people who are abroad to send money home swiftly to their friends and families not only in the cities but also directly to the villages across these countries," Zain Chief Executive Saad Al Barrak said in a statement.
The statement, released at a GSM Association conference on mobile money in Barcelona, cited research from industry group Aite saying that people living outside their home country sent nearly $400 billion in remittances around the world in 2008, with sub-Saharan Africa alone receiving $10.8 billion in 2007.
Zain, which has spent billions of dollars expanding outside Kuwait, plans to launch Zap in 22 markets. It has already launched in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in the past months.
Zain's popularity has been greatly helped by its elimination of roaming charges and establishment of a single cross-border network it calls One Network.
Zap customers pay a flat-rate premium SMS charge, regardless of how much money they receive or from where.
Zain Africa CEO Chris Gabriel told Reuters the company, which aims to be a global top-10 operator by 2011, was actively considering requests from other operators to join One Network.
"As we stand today, we are being besieged by other mobile operators, globally, wanting to join our One Network and wanting to join Zap. That is something under active consideration, and we will look to expand that," he said.
"There are tens, many tens of carriers that have approached us," he added. "It is really making sure we have the right partnerships in place before we decide to expand our network."
CROSS-BORDER PILOTS
Western Union has an agent network of 334,000 locations in 200 countries and territories. Zain has 65 million active customers.
Western Union has a variety of cross-border money-transfer pilots running, and currently allows mobile subscribers in the Philippines to receive funds from some locations directly into their mobile wallets. Continued...
