Airtel To Diversify Into Money Transfer

Sunil Mittal now wants to carry your money as well, as his company Airtel already carries your calls. Mittal is getting ready to enter the money transfer business, a $250 billion market globally.Indians around the world alone remitted about $27 billion and Airtel is targeting not only this market but also money transfers within the country, till now mostly a preserve of the postal department.

Since money transfer involves carrying as well as storage of cash, Airtel is tying up with banks and talks are on with ICICI Bank as well as SBI. Even though Airtel officials don''t want to disclose the exact details yet but sources tell NDTV that Airtel plans to give its subscriber special security codes, which when punched will allow the subscriber to transfer money over the phone.

The person who receives the money will need to have an Airtel connection as well. Banks will do the actual transfer domestically while international transfers will be handled by Western Union.

Airtel says that the main USP of their money transfer business will be charges that are cheaper than what you pay today. Airtel will earn through commissions from banks as well as money transfer companies like Western Union.

Initially, one may need to have a bank account to avail of the money transfer facility but looking at its rural push Airtel is looking at empowering its dealers to handle some money transfer business.

M Commerce is something that many mobile companies have been trying to popularize without much success and Airtel''s new initiative''s success or failure will be determined by how easy to use and how cheap the money transfer process is.