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India Impact: Dubai Remittance Crisis

Remittance Advisor — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 09:12:25 +0000

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said the Dubai World debt restructuring “will not have a large impact” on the flow of remittances out of the UAE.

The UAE accounts for nearly 13 per cent of the total remittance flow into India, with as many as 42 per cent of the 1.5 million population of Dubai being Indians.

Noting that remittances worth $10 billion (Dh36.7 billion) go out of the UAE, a top IMF official has said the Dubai debt restructuring might have some effect on those outflows.

“… I think it’s important to recognise that while there may be a slowing down in Dubai, Abu Dhabi continues to grow rapidly, as do other countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). So the net effect in terms of remittances out of the region may not be as large,” Masoud Ahmad, director of IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department said on Wednesday.

The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday said the crisis would have some impact on remittance flow into the country, especially to those states which get huge inflows from the Gulf.

“Some parts of the country are certainly more dependent on remittances from Dubai, but overall I think it is too early to say. There could be some impact… ,” RBI Deputy Governor Usha Thorat had said.

Sudhir Kumar Shetty, chief operating officer of UAE Exchange, one of the country’s largest money exchange houses with branches elsewhere in the Gulf and beyond, said transfers from Dubai had dropped slightly but extra business from two other emirates, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, had compensated.

“We haven’t seen any change in volumes since the news [of the restructuring] broke. As long as expatriates are employed, they will make remittances,” he said.

India Post’s two new services – MO Videsh and Flat Rate Boxes

Remittance Advisor — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:15:16 +0000

Union Communication and IT Minister A Raja today launched India Post’s two new services – MO Videsh and Flat Rate Boxes. MO Videsh was an offering in the field of international remittance services, which would be the first outward remittance service from the Department, barring the paper based money order service that existed towards Nepal and Bhutan, India Post sources said. The service enabled inward and outward international remittances in the form of Cash to Cash, Cash to Account, Account to Cash and Account to Account money transfers. This service was executed through EUROGIRO systems, which was equivalent to SWIFT, it said. MO Videsh would initially be offered through Head Post Offices numbering about 800 across India and will be expanded to 8000 Post Offices.

Pakistan Remittance Initiative

Remittance Advisor — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:39:50 +0000

The State Bank has offered marketing expenses reimbursement to overseas entities that succeed to mobilise large amount of remittances for the country.

The State Bank announced the scheme as part of Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI) which was launched a couple of months ago to accelerate pace of remittances from overseas Pakistanis.

The State Bank said it will pay marketing expenses as percentage of remittances mobilized by an overseas entity.

According to details, if an entity mobilises remittances above $100 to $400 million from one particular jurisdiction, the marketing expenses would be paid on incremental amount (above $100 million) as 0.5 per cent of remittances.

Similarly, if an entity mobilises $400 to $800 million, the expenses would be paid on incremental amount (above $100 million) as 0.75 per cent of remittances and one per cent would be paid if an entity mobilises $800 to $1200 million.

If an entity mobilises above $1200 million, one per cent of total amount of remittances would be paid.

The SBP said a performance based scheme has been developed to encourage overseas entities to enhance marketing efforts at origination end.

According to a circular issued by the State Bank on Monday, the government will reimburse marketing expenses through SBP.

This scheme will be applicable to those entities who offer free remittance services under scheme of reimbursement of TT charges and the incentives would be given on country-wise performance of the overseas entities.

Under the scheme, overseas entities would be required to submit a detailed marketing plan to respective banks with which they have home remittance related arrangements.

This scheme would be applicable to those overseas entities which have arrangements with banks in Pakistan only and if any overseas entity itself or any of its affiliated concern is found involved in effecting remittances through channels other than banking sector in Pakistan, such an entity would not be entitled to reimbursement under the scheme, said the SBP.

According to the circular, the entities already effecting remittances through banking channels, their target would be 25 per cent more than what they channeled during the period from Oct 1, 2008 to Sept 30, to qualify for the above scheme (for the entities which started operations during the above-referred period, their respective targets would be calculated by spreading their existing performance to the whole 12 months.

Similarly, only those entities would be eligible for reimbursement under the scheme which has satisfactory compliance status.

This scheme would be for one year initially and overseas entities would be reimbursed at the end of the scheme year based on actual performance as assessed by SBP while the starting date for evaluating the performance would be October 1, and their performance would be evaluated on the amounts mobilised till Sept 30, 2010.

The performance of overseas entities in terms of home remittances affected would be reported by banks to (PRI) SBP on monthly basis, the circular said and added the scheme would run concurrently with any other scheme previously announced by SBP and currently in force.

The State Bank observed that one of the major impediments to the flow of remittances through formal channels was insufficient marketing efforts at the originator end, aimed at providing information about remittance channels and other facilitation to overseas Pakistanis.

Remittance Offers in this Diwali Season

Remittance Advisor — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:54:18 +0000

It is Diwali season in India and the festive sprits are high. The festival of lights has certainly lifted the dampened sprits of recession with the stock markets rocketing for the past couple of days, even the dropping exchange rates have started to gain with a INR2 gain in the pound from the previous close of INR 73.20 to over INR 75 today.

The remittance service providers have quite a bouquet of offers on their sites, a few of them are as follows -

Barclays Remittance: Online Money Transfer offers UK ATP tour tickets free to its customers who remit money between 10th October till 9th November. The tickets will be for the finals match to be held in London. Please click here to see the promotion.

Remit2India: They offer white-goods which will be delivered to an address in India. The offer requires you to transfer money and play a simple game to be elegible for the offer. Please click here to see the promotion.

Money2India: They offer calling cards on remittances. Please click here to see the promotion.

Don’t miss out on the offers!

India post goes for a makeover with new services

Remittance Advisor — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:45:33 +0000

India post has signed an agreement with Eurogiro, a global network of banks and financial institutions, for direct money remittance through post offices. Indians working abroad will soon be able to send cash directly to their relatives at their doorsteps through the widespread postal network. “The department of posts will soon join the Eurogiro remittance network, allowing its customers to receive and send money on a par with the best banks in the world,” an official in the Ministry of Communications and IT said to Economic times. Under the proposed scheme, the payment will be made at the doorstep of the beneficiary, as against the existing practice followed by banks and other institutions asking them to come to their offices to collect the payment.

GBP – INR Forex rates on 12th June 2009

Remittance Advisor — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:16:47 +0000

The GBP-INR FX rates as displayed by various Indian Online Money Transfer service providers are as per the below table -

Operator	Inter Bank Rate	Display Rate	% Margin	Paise Margin
Barclays Online MT	INR 78.63	INR 77.90	0.92%	INR 0.73
HDFC Quick Remit	INR 78.63	INR 77.66	1.23%	INR 0.97
Remit2India	INR 78.63	INR 77.86	0.97%	INR 0.77
Money2India	INR 78.63	INR 77.28	1.71%	INR 1.35
Axis Remit	INR 78.63	INR 77.97	0.83%	INR 0.66
OnlineSBI	INR 78.63	INR 77.57	1.34%	INR 1.06
Bank of Baroda	INR 78.63	INR 76.96	2.12%	INR 1.67
CitiNRI	INR 78.63	INR 77.16	1.86%	INR 1.47

The rate are as of	1:07 PM	12-Jun-09

Disclaimer – The display rates shown in above are for illustration purposes and amy not be applicable to transactions process on the mentioned day or date. We do not claim any responsibility towards the correctness of the data presented here. The data has been colledcted from various websites and we do not solicit any transactions or remittances based on the above representation.

Fx Rates for GBP-INR remittance on 2nd June 2009

Remittance Advisor — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:27:33 +0000

The Foreign Exchange rates for money transfer from Uk to India are as follows -

Operator	Inter Bank Rate	Display Rate	% Margin	Paise Margin
Barclays Online MT	INR 77.14	INR 76.80	0.44%	INR 0.34
HDFC Quick Remit	INR 77.14	INR 76.46	0.88%	INR 0.68
Remit2India	INR 77.14	INR 76.73	0.53%	INR 0.41
Money2India	INR 77.14	INR 76.54	0.77%	INR 0.60
Axis Remit	INR 77.14	INR 76.83	0.40%	INR 0.31
OnlineSBI	INR 77.14	INR 76.47	0.86%	INR 0.67
CitiNRI	INR 77.14	INR 75.46	2.17%	INR 1.68
Bank of Baroda	INR 77.14	INR 75.18	2.54%	INR 1.96

The rate are as of	8:23 AM	2-Jun-09

Disclaimer: The remittance FX rates have been collated from respective websites which offer money tranfer facility. They are subject to change during the course of the day and remittanceadvisor.com claims no responsibility of any action taken by the users/readers based on this information. This informantion should not be used as any basis for initiating money transfer or used as a case subject.

Foreign Exchange Rates for GBP-INR as of 29th May 09

Remittance Advisor — Fri, 29 May 2009 08:56:44 +0000

The indicative rates displayed by various online money transfer service providers are as follows -

Operator	Inter Bank Rate	Display Rate	% Margin	Paise Margin
Barclays Online MT	INR 76.44	INR 75.80	0.84%	INR 0.64
HDFC Quick Remit	INR 76.44	INR 74.98	1.91%	INR 1.46
Remit2India	INR 76.44	INR 74.65	2.34%	INR 1.79
Money2India	INR 76.44	INR 74.98	1.91%	INR 1.46
Axis Remit	INR 76.44	INR 75.10	1.75%	INR 1.34
OnlineSBI	INR 76.44	INR 75.52	1.20%	INR 0.92
CitiNRI	INR 76.44	INR 72.84	4.71%	INR 3.60
Bank of Baroda	INR 76.44	INR 74.98	1.91%	INR 1.46

The rate are as of	8:44 AM	29-May-09

Disclaimer: The rates are only indicative and displayed as per the display on the above mentioned time. This is subject to change during the course of the day due to foreign exchange fluctuations. Remittance Advisor™ or any of its affiliates take no responsibility/ownership of the data and in no way solicits the readers to make a choice based on the above rates. The readers are advised to check with the service providers prior to engaging into any commitment.

GBP to INR forex rates on 8 May 2009

Remittance Advisor — Fri, 08 May 2009 10:55:07 +0000

The GBP to INR foreign exchange rates as displayed on various online money transfer services and banks -

Operator	Inter Bank Rate	Display Rate	% Margin	Paise Margin
Barclays Online MT	INR 74.11	INR 74.00	0.14%	INR 0.11
HDFC Quick Remit	INR 74.11	INR 73.27	1.13%	INR 0.84
Remit2India	INR 74.11	INR 73.32	1.06%	INR 0.79
Money2India	INR 74.11	INR 73.34	1.03%	INR 0.77
Axis Remit	INR 74.11	INR 73.46	0.87%	INR 0.65
OnlineSBI	INR 74.11	INR 73.59	0.70%	INR 0.52
CitiNRI	INR 74.11	INR 72.72	1.87%	INR 1.39
Bank of Baroda	INR 74.11	INR 73.80	0.41%	INR 0.31

The rate are as of	10:52 AM	8-May-09

Remit2India: Money on Referral

Remittance Advisor — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:04:57 +0000

Remit2India launched on 28th April 09, a new referral program targeted to increase business via new customers. The program is called “MORE Friends = MOR Money“

With MOR, the program claims that you will make money on referrals as well as your friend’s first transaction through us. For every friend that you refer, your Remit2India account^* will be credited with INR 150 (US$ 3 approx.) immediately.

Immediately after your friend completes his first transaction through Remit2India, your MOR statement^* will be again credited with a further amount of INR 350 (US$ 7 approx., the account or stament is not clear)

To know more about the offer please click here.

There were no terms and conditions available on the referral promotion page for review at the time is article was published. * – Remit2India account is not clear since the service does not operate any known e-wallets. The site mentions that the referral amount can be added to the next transaction.