Western Union International Money Transfers Coming To Convenience Stores?

[Mulboyne]

Trading Markets: Western Union to launch int'l money transfer services in Japan
Money transfer service provider Western Union Co. of the United States plans to launch international money transfer services in Japan as a new law to take effect next year will allow nonbank entities to provide such services, a company official said Thursday. Foreign workers in Japan transfer around 400 billion yen to their home countries each year, Regional Vice President for Asia Andrew Ong said, indicating that the company sees these workers as potential customers. Western Union plans to conclude agent contracts with a wide range of Japanese businesses including convenience stores, post offices and banks to provide international money transfer services throughout Japan, he said....The U.S. firm previously teamed up with Suruga Bank based in Shizuoka Prefecture to provide such services but has ended them...While banks' international money transfer services require both those transferring and those receiving money to pay fees, recipients are not charged fees in Western Union's services. Japan's parliament enacted the payment clearance law last month to help lower payment clearance fees by enabling entities other than banks to provide money transfer services.

[FG Lurker]

This would be awesome if it actually happens! Periodically I get people who wish to buy things from me and pay by Western Union but right now there is no agent office in Osaka. Should be interesting to see how this unfolds.

[Mulboyne]

Japan Times: Seven Bank eyes overseas remittances

Seven Bank said it will start overseas remittance services, possibly in fiscal 2010, from accounts at the bank to preregistered overseas accounts. Seven Bank, a Seven & I Holdings Co. arm that runs a network of more than 14,000 automated teller machines at convenience stores and elsewhere, said it will offer the service in conjunction with Western Union, a major U.S. remittance service provider. The bank said Friday it believes there is sizable demand for such remittance services, particularly among foreign migrant workers in Japan, who currently number about 2.2 million. Such migrant workers are estimated to send some \1 trillion a year overseas, according to Seven Bank. At present, major domestic commercial banks charge around \5,000 per remittance. Seven Bank said it expects to cash in on substantial demand as it plans to undercut its competitors. Those who already have or open an account at Seven Bank will be able to send money overseas around the clock from the bank's ATMs or via its Web site if they register information on recipients' accounts beforehand, it said. The recipients will be able to withdraw money at more than 350,000 business locations being operated or supervised by Western Union worldwide.

[Mulboyne]

This collaboration between Western Union and Seven Bank kicked off on July 19th. You can now use all the 7-11 store ATMs for overseas remittances as well as online. You need a Seven Bank account and the charges are 990 yen for amounts under 10,000 yen and 1500 yen for amounts under 50,000 yen.

Here's the English website for the service. It includes a page indicating what kind of exchange rates you can expect.

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One of the reasons the service has started is an initiative by the Financial Services Agency to encourage more money transfer operators. The primary aim is to get business back from illegal underground banks which are regularly used by groups of foreign labourers sending money back home. Nikkei Business has an article on this issue (Japanese) which includes the following graph:



The blue bars show the number of foreign labourers (for some reason there's no data for 2007) and the red line is remittances from Japan. The article points out the lack of correlation which is put down to the use of underground banks.

Nikkei Business believes Docomo is also planning to enter this market in collaboration with Microfinance International. The US company has a press release on its site about the deal. There'll be an upper limit on transfers of 500,000 yen a month and a flat charge of 1,000 yen. The Nikkei says Docomo has an eye on expanding use of its mobile services among foreigners in Japan given that the low birth rate means growth will slow elsewhere. Consequently, other mobile operators are expected to start similar services.

Until now, the major banks have not developed their offerings because it has not been a big source of profits. However, they may rethink this and the Nikkei indicates that Japanese living overseas who wish to send money to Japan may also be a future growth market.

[matsuki]

Could be good...might want to see how the rates compare to the larger banks.

[Mike Oxlong]

[Coligny]

/threadjack...

Did all them bank lower the ATM daily withdrawall limit ?

Aichi bank went from 200 mans a day to only 50 mans since last october it seems...

[Doctor Stop]

Aichi bank went from 200 mans a day to only 50 mans since last october it seems...

And we're talking about the bank's total capitalization here. Aichi!

[wagyl]

Did all them bank lower the ATM daily withdrawall limit ?

Yep, and I thought it was earlier than that. Party like its 2006!

[Coligny]

Yep, and I thought it was earlier than that. Party like its 2006!

Well except that until september 2010 I was allowed to withdraw twice 100 mans per day at the atm... It was a 3 days affair to pay for an Audi...

Now it would take 12 days...

Bestest part... that stoopid ATM didn't tell the allowed limit and just printed a "fuck you" receipt in chinese when I asked too much... It's nice too be an embeded software developper for ATM in Japan...

Postal ATMs don't allow for bill size selection in the english interface...

[FG Lurker]

You can probably have the bank raise the limit on the account. I've done this but it probably varies from bank to bank.

[Coligny]

They are quite... assholish so I won't even try... The problem is that me Dj00ly salary goes to this bank but she use another one for all the credit cards. So from time to time have to transfer from one to the other, since she didun't take internet banking option or want to do transfer to avoid the fees... Anyway... with our lavish lifestyle... it's not exactly something that need to be done too often...

[Samurai_Jerk]

So from time to time have to transfer from one to the other, since she didun't ... want to do transfer to avoid the fees.

Wow, that's beyond cheap.