MoneyGram sees 81% increase in online remittances in April

With the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown impacting mobility of workers across the world, payment services firm MoneyGram saw an 81 per cent increase in its online remittances in April this year compared to a year ago and now plans to focus more on digital initiatives to help its customers.

“As the Covid-19 crisis hit us, our digital business has grown substantially. In April 2020, digital business grew by 81 per cent year on year. People are unable to go to a branch so they prefer to either use bank account credit facility or use MoneyGram online,” said Anil Kapur, Head, Asia-Pacific and South Asia, MoneyGram International.

In an interaction with BusinessLine, Kapur said that the company will continue to explore digital opportunities in this environment and is working on multiple ways to reach out to customers and service them better.

“The situation will progress positively as the lockdown opens up but it’s very difficult to predict what will happen in the future. We are finding ways to reach out to our customers in this environment and how the agent can go to them,” he said.

The recent partnership with Federal Bank is also expected to help the company as it will allow for direct deposit of remittances in bank account.

Digital business

“With the Covid-19 pandemic, our walk-in business experienced a downturn, simultaneously our digital business has grown and our focus has been on growing digital capability. This is part of the reason for the tie-up with Federal Bank,” Kapur said.

In India, MoneyGram also has tie ups with EbixCash, Thomas Cook, Unimoni, Supreme Securities and Muthoot Forex, which has given it presence in over 40,000 locations.

“Ebix has a huge network in India of agents around the country. This gives us access to a lot of areas which a typical bank may not have branches in. We need to have the capability as many of our receivers in rural India may not have access to bank accounts easily,” Kapur said.

Globally, MoneyGram has 48 million users and is present in over 200 countries.