Business | Banking
HSBC launches new remittance service to India
Global bank HSBC launched a new "One World" money-transfer service for Indians living in the Middle East yesterday, aiming to boost its share of the multi-billion dollar India remittance pie.
- By Arif Sharif, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:00 October 9, 2006
- Image Credit: Gulf News archive
- Niall S.K. Booker, deputy chairman and CEO of HSBC Bank Middle East Ltd.
Dubai: Global bank HSBC launched a new "One World" money-transfer service for Indians living in the Middle East yesterday, aiming to boost its share of the multi-billion dollar India remittance pie.
India, Asia's fourth larg-est economy, is the world's largest receiver of remittances, approximately $23 billion a year. Some 35 per cent of that or about $8 billion originates from the Middle East.
About 1.2 million Indians live in the UAE, the country's largest community, and about 3.5 million overall in the Middle East.
Manasije Mishra, head of NRI services for HSBC India, told a news conference "One World" will allow Indians to open bank accounts in the UAE even before they arrive here, to transfer their credit history from India as well as help with their credit card and mortgages.
Indians living in the UAE can also transfer money to their HSBC accounts in India free of charge using cheques or the internet and onwards to some 1,000 branches of other Indian banks that are linked electronically. The money will be credited to their accounts in one to three days.
HSBC operates 46 branches in 25 Indian cities.
HSBC also introduced a first-of-a-kind money transfer facility to India through HSBC's 79 ATMs in the UAE of a maximum of $10,000 a day.
Mishra said HSBC had about a five per cent share of the India remittance pie from the region and was hoping to boost that with the new service.
He said the bank will also boost its sales force to help wealthy non-resident Indians choose from its wide array of India-based as well as global investment products.
Non-resident Indians are estimated to hold some $32 billion in bank accounts in India making them an attractive target market.
Niall S K Booker, deputy chairman and CEO of HSBC Bank Middle East Ltd, told the conference that a dedicated NRI banking centre was inaugurated yesterday at the Business Centre on Khalid Bin Al Walid Street in Dubai.
"The centre will provide personal financial services including remittances to India as well as NRI accounts and mortgages, establishing bank accounts in India and providing rupee-based mortgages for property in India," he said.
Booker told the conference the launch of a seamless banking service between the UAE and India was the first of a kind anywhere in the world and the bank could replicate it for other communities like the Filipinos.
HSBC, which calls itself the world's local bank, is the biggest of 25 foreign banks operating in the UAE.
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