Comments
Post-demonetisation in India, UAE Exchange — a global player in the remittance business — has seen a huge jump in usage of its pre-paid travel cards ‘Go Cash’.
Promoth Manghat, CEO, Global Operations of the exchange, said expatriates now travelling to India have started using these cards in a big way, registering a 120 per cent growth in business in the last one month. The convenience of holding up to ₹4 lakh in these cards will enable travellers to carry out cash transactions in the country, especially during the cash crunch period. Besides, the digital wallet — Xpay — has also been receiving encouraging response from domestic Indian customers to meet their merchandise payments and domestic transactions.
Digital investments Manghat, who was in Kochi on an official visit, told BusinessLine, the exchange’s digital business has seen a double-digit growth and the company’s renewed thrust on digital investments, acquisitions and capability building since 2014 have helped reap the benefits of currency demonetisation in India.
“We see substantial growth in remittance business from customers due to currency demonetisation and weakening of the rupee. Today, 80 per cent of the remittance business is carried out through bank accounts and the remaining by cash transfer, which nosedived in the last one month due to currency shortage, with a commensurate increase in remittance to bank accounts,” he said.
On the impact of demonetisation, he said, there will be a payment revolution and it will see new business models emerging in the country. However, there would be some operational problems, which will be overcome with people’s behavioural changes. “Going digital has helped us achieve a regulatory comfort,” he said, adding that many of the matured markets, such as the UK, US, Australia, China and even some GCC countries have already adopted the digital way of cash transactions.
On the company’s performance, Manghat said it has achieved dominant presence in more than 150 countries, including in Europe and Africa, by carrying out over 100 million transactions as a group.
Remittance flow The overall remittance flow to India as a whole has grown even under the challenging Gulf economic situation (fall in oil prices). Growth for the year 2016, so far, is 8 per cent. The company has a market share of 6.5 per cent in the global remittance business, which is estimated at $450-500 billion and 7.2 per cent in the foreign exchange market, he added.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.