Emirates launches SMS money transfer

Emirates Bank has joined forces with a Californian technology firm to introduce a ‘salary card’ which can be used to send and receive money globally by SMS.

The service will benefit low income workers who do not have bank accounts and will be available through a variety of channels including SMS, call centres and ATMs.

A bank spokesman told Khaleej Times “This method will be cheaper, safer and more convenient than current alternatives,” adding “there is no need to maintain an account or a minimum balance with the bank.”

The all-in-one payment card can be recharged at hundreds of locations across the UAE. The bank has received interest from various employers, merchants and government agencies to tie up with the service.

Jamal Bin Ghalaita, general manager consumer banking and wealth management at Emirates Bank said “There is an urgent need to provide employers with a service to pay lower-income workers via a bank-account instead of the current practice of paying cash, a method that is time-consuming and prone to abuse.”

A spokesman from a major contracting firm told Khaleej Times ““Such a service is all the more significant for its timing now that the government, in its effort to ensure that low income workers wages are paid on time, is making it mandatory that their remuneration should be paid through banks.”

Farooq Bajwa, chairman of Infospan Inc, which will provide the technology behind the card said similar systems were already in operation between the US and South American countries. “We can provide customers, especially the largely un-banked, blue-collar workers with an instantaneous, highly secure and very convenient platform to remit funds, and pay local and international bills. In many cases this will be the first time these workers have the safety and convenience of keeping their money in a bank, a service that most of us take for granted.”

According to the IMF, migrant workers remit about $350 Billion each year globally, 20% of which comes from the Gulf, making the region the second largest source of funds after the United States. But because this represents millions of small value transactions, usually less than $300 per remittance, most banks cannot profitably compete with the unofficial 'Hawala' market.

Bin Ghalaita said agreements with partner banks were currently in the final stages and that the service would launch ‘soon.’

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