Indian financial services provider IndusInd Bank has on last Friday announced its partnership with global payment firm Wise to offer online inward remittance services to Non Resident Indians (NRIs) residing in United States and Singapore.
Wise said in a statement that IndusInd Bank’s multi-partner remittance service platform – Indus Fast Remit (IFR) and Wise Platform have integrated to offer multi-currency inward remittance service to NRIs.
The integration of IFR and Wise Platform also marks the launch of Wise Platform, Wise’s infrastructure offering for banks and non-banks, in India.
According to the statement, this partnership will enable IndusInd Bank customers to transfer money from two global markets namely the United States and Singapore at highly competitive foreign exchange (forex) rates where they will be able to compare rates and know the exact credit amount without any mark-up being levied.
It is noted that the conventional way of cross-border money movement through traditional financial institutions typically involves high charges and hidden fees.
Indeed, an earlier study conducted by Capital Economics found that people sending money into India from abroad paid over ₹21900 crores on foreign exchange fees in 2020, of which roughly ₹7900 crores were hidden as exchange rate markups on currency conversions.
The remaining ₹14000 crores were spent on transaction fees.
According to the statement, IndusInd Bank’s customers can access Wise’s lightning fast and low cost international money transfers directly through the Bank’s Indus Fast Remit platform or its internet banking platform.
Customers will have visibility over their transfer status and estimated arrival time.
Additionally, transfers are fast — about 55 percent of transfers sent through Wise are instant (less than 20 seconds).
Furthermore, the process to initiate a transfer can be done online without visiting bank branches or going through the hassle of any paperwork.
Through this collaboration, NRIs can book remittance transactions on IndusInd Bank Indus Fast Remit platform and credit to beneficiary will be routed under Rupee Drawing Arrangement (RDA) scheme of RBI through Wise’s RDA partners in India.
Indus Fast Remit platform will also facilitate NRI customers to open Non Resident External (NRE) / Non Resident Ordinary (NRO) accounts with IndusInd Bank, apart from using the remittance services.
“At IndusInd Bank, it’s been our constant endeavor to bring forth path-breaking propositions that provide customers with a seamless banking and remittance experience,” said Soumitra Sen, Head of Consumer Banking and Marketing, IndusInd Bank.
According to him, this revamped Indus Fast Remit platform enables NRIs to send money to a beneficiary in India at lower cost and at competitive conversion rates from two countries globally.
“We believe that this proposition will witness substantial traction amongst the NRIs, providing them with a comprehensive solution for seamless transfers to India,” he added.
Wise India Country Manager Rashmi Satpute said that at Wise, the firm’s mission is to make moving money faster, cheaper and more transparent.
“Having launched transfers from India in 2021, today we are thrilled to double down on our commitment here and bring Wise Platform to India with IndusInd Bank onboard as our first partner,” she said.
According to her, IndusInd Bank and Wise share a common vision of modernizing the global financial system, and the partnership enables inexpensive, fast and transparent transfers to India for millions of NRIs abroad.
Indus Fast Remit is a first-of-its-kind multi-partner digital platform facilitating remittances to India especially by Non Resident Indians (NRI).
The users of Indus Fast Remit will have an option to choose from multiple exchange houses/money transfer companies offering competitive rates with a single sign on and an end-to-end digital journey.
The remittance service will be offered through the licensed overseas exchange houses/money transfer companies and the amount will be transferred to the beneficiary’s account in India under RBI’s Rupee Drawing Arrangement (RDA) Scheme.
Wise Platform is live with more than 60 banks and businesses across the world, allowing them to leverage Wise’s technology and embed the best way to send, receive and manage money internationally.
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