The Hindu Business Line : Visa in talks with insurers

Mumbai, Oct 3 Soon insurance agents can get their commission transferred straight to their accounts and need not wait for the clearance of cheques or demand drafts. Visa is in talks with insurance companies to offer the money transfer service.

“We are talking to insurance companies and want to roll out the project as soon as possible,” said Mr Uttam Nayak, Country Manager, India, Visa. We currently have a ‘person-to-person’ money transfer model, by tying up with insurance companies we want to have a ‘business-to-person’ model, he said.

Visa money transfer is the process of transferring funds through a customer’s bank account, debit or credit card via the Internet or ATM (Automated Teller Machines).

Mr Nayak felt that such money transfers would be of help to insurance companies in enabling the payment of commission to their agents.

“Such companies usually pay their agents by cheques or demand drafts which take longer time for clearance; by making use of our platform they can cut down on costs and avoid delay in payments,” said Mr Nayak. The maximum time taken for Visa money transfer is approximately 48 hours, he said.

Tie-up with 15 banks

Visa has tied up with about 15 banks for its money transfer services since its launch two years ago. Most banks offer the service for free and do not require any specific registration from their customers.

A customer willing to conduct such money transfers can do so either on an ATM or Internet. Once the transaction is completed successfully, he will get the confirmation through e-mail or SMS, said Mr Nayak.

State Bank of India, which recently launched the money transfer service, has already seen 7,000-8,000 transactions. Mr Nayak felt that while public sector banks were strong on their ATM network, private banks were more comfortable using the Internet.

“SBI has a large presence in the ATM space; the maximum number of money transfers therefore takes place on ATMs,” he said.

The company is also looking at using mobile phone as a channel to carry out money transfers.

“Once the scheme is rolled out on mobile phones, the customer can have anytime access to the money transfer services,” he said.

The domestic card-to-card Visa Money Transfer service – first launched in the Asia-Pacific region in India – allows consumers to remit funds from their bank account or Visa card to any of the more than 36 million Visa debit cards and almost 15 million Visa credit cards in 150 locations across India.

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