How Western Union stays in business

Ever wondered how immigrants in Western nations send money to their families in poor and often rural parts of the world? Western Union is traditionally "the fastest way to send money worldwide", but also one of the most expensive, charging anywhere from 5 to 20% transaction fees.

ICICI Bank says they have some ideas in the pipeline, but no real specifics in this Hindu News Update. In any case, it's good to see this market getting more competition. Cutting international person to person transfer costs is one of the quickest ways to put money in the hands of the poor:

While not revealing the finer details about the proposed products, Misra said the products will be market-specific and possess a plethora of innovative features, which will make the modes of disbursing and accepting funds very easy.

"The new products will focus on end-beneficiaries who do not have an account with us as also on the hitherto unbanked segments," he informed.

ICICI Bank currently enjoys an over 20 per cent marketshare in the $ 24 billion Indian remittances market.