Date:28/02/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/28/stories/2008022851081900.htm

Business

Web-based service for NRI remittance

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: Federal Bank has launched a web-based service for remittances from NRIs in the US.

The service, called Fed-India Remit Service (FIRSE), enables an NRI to transfer money from his or her bank account in the US.

The customer needs to have a one-time online registration with the bank to access the service. The bank carries out the remittance instructions through Automated Clearing House (ACH), which is a paperless clearing house in the US, handling electronic funds transfer. Bank of America is the partner bank for Federal Bank for carrying out the transfer.

Inaugurating the service, Federal Bank chairman M. Venugopalan said the remitter would be able to do the registration and give remittance instructions from his home, office, Internet cafe in the US or anywhere in the world.

The remitter will know the status of the transaction from the website while the beneficiary will know the payment into one’s account through mobile alert.

He said the bank was not taking any service charges for the facility. The bank would convert the money into rupees at a competitive exchange rate as on the date of payment to the beneficiary. The payment takes three to seven days and the maximum amount that could be sent would be $5000 at a time. The beneficiary should be a Federal Bank customer.

The process is much faster than methods of transfer through demand draft or cheques, said Federal Bank executive director K.S. Harshan.

He launched the monthly e-newsletter ‘Federal Link’ on the occasion.

Explaining the characteristics of the new scheme, Abraham Tharian, General Manager (Treasury), Federal Bank, pointed out that the transaction through cheque collection takes 20-25 days. The DD method of transfer involves charges including interest for a period of about 10 days required for the clearance, according to officials of the bank.