Dubai: Wall Street Exchange, a provider of foreign exchange services, will open 11 more outlets and hire 80 to 100 employees this year, a company executive told Gulf News yesterday.
The company, which is also a member of Emirates Post Group, opened its 29th branch within the Baniyas Post Office in Abu Dhabi yesterday, as part of its strategy to increase its share of the UAE’s growing remittance market.
Sultan Bin Kharsam, managing director of Wall Street Exchange Centre, said, they are aiming to expand their network in the UAE to 40 branches by the end of 2014 and increase their “customer base” by more than 35 per cent.
“Our next opening will be in Sharjah, next to the new Nesto Hypermarket. We will progressively roll out the other locations,” Kharsam said.
Boosting market share
“The UAE is Wall Street’s biggest remittance market in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council). Our expansion will largely be concentrated within the UAE for us to consolidate and increase our market share before we expand across the GCC,” he added.
Established in Dubai more than 30 years ago, Wall Street Exchange offers money remittance services mainly to expatriate workers from South Asia and the Middle East. The company has branches in Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, and maintains subsidiary offices in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong.
Kharsam declined to disclose the size of the company’s market share, but he said their “remittance per branch is already increasing.”
“Our current expansion plan will definitely strengthen our position in the coming months. [We will be] introducing new and innovative product line to bring the unbanked majority into the formal remittance and payment system,” he added.
Outbound money transfers from the UAE were estimated to be worth $12.8 billion in 2012. Remittances are forecast to grow 7 to 8 per cent over a period of two years, on the back of strong population growth and economic activity.
