ABU DHABI The lion’s share of the average expatriate’s income goes to supporting his family back home. So it is no exaggeration when Sudhir Kumar Shetty, president of UAE Exchange, says his business helps millions.
“The majority of our customers in the UAE are blue collar workers and other low-income expatriates. When they send their hard-earned money to their families through our exchange house, we make sure we live up to their expectations,” Sudhir Kumar told XPRESS.
Celebrating the 35th anniversary of UAE Exchange which has a global network of 800 branches in 31 countries, and 7.9 million customers worldwide, Sudhir Kumar says customer satisfaction continues to be their driving force.
A vision
Before the first UAE Exchange office opened on October 23, 1980, on Hamdan Street, Abu Dhabi, sending money home was a challenge for expatriates. “Banks remained closed late afternoons and during weekends. Often it would take up to three weeks for a beneficiary to receive the money,” said Sudhir Kumar.
“B.R. Shetty, CEO and managing director, identified this gap and launched the company with the vision of offering 24-hour service seven days a week,” Shetty added.
Over the years, as the exchange opened more branches in the UAE (Sharjah 1981, Al Ain 1982, Deira 1985) and also ventured into the GCC followed by five branches in Kerala, India in 1999, the quality and efficacy of the service also improved, he said.
“In 1996, we started sending files electronically to our office in Kerala and printing the drafts. Local couriers were engaged to send drafts to banks or to the recipients. The time between remittance and delivery was drastically reduced from three weeks to just three days,” said Kumar who joined UAE Exchange in 1991.
