Grab to Offer Foreign Remittance Services in 2019

Southeast Asia’s main ride-hailing firm Seize introduced that it’s going to quickly provide a cross-border remittance service by its cellular pockets, GrabPay. The corporate plans to launch the function in early 2019.

On the 33rd ASEAN Summit in Singapore, Seize mentioned that the overseas remittance service is a major step in the direction of the corporate’s imaginative and prescient of a multi-currency ASEAN e-wallet.

The brand new service permits GrabPay customers to ship cash to receivers in a foreign country. Receivers will be capable to entry the transferred funds immediately. Receivers can select to money out the transmitted funds utilizing GrabPay’s community of cash-out factors or use the cash for different transactions corresponding to invoice funds.

The corporate mentioned that the remittance course of shall be handy and hassle-free. GrabPay customers can use their cell phones to confirm their identities, eradicating the necessity for private verification on the financial institution or cash switch agent.

Seize mentioned that the complete remittance course of is totally safe and clear. Funds are transferred from one GrabPay pockets to a different, and the sender will see the all-in charge (together with the admin charge and foreign exchange price) earlier than remitting the cash in order that the receiver will obtain the funds with out further discretionary charges.

Some cash switch brokers require senders to pay substantial switch charges or cost further charges for the instant assortment of funds. Moreover, some cash switch operators don’t assure the end-to-end switch of funds from the sender to the receiver, which brings uncertainty to the complete remittance course of.

“We consider this remittance product shall be a game-changer for thousands and thousands of unbanked or undeserved people throughout Southeast Asia,” mentioned Reuben Lai, Managing Director of Seize Monetary.

“We noticed the painful course of that buyers undergo every time they need to ship cash throughout the borders and thought we might make a distinction there. Our wallet-to-wallet remittance product would be the first to ensure the pace, safety and ease-of-use which Southeast Asia’s rising center class actually wants,” Lai added.

Seize didn’t disclose which international locations would be the first to take pleasure in the brand new function however mentioned that it “will first launch within the largest remittance corridors in Southeast Asia, the place there’s a excessive focus of economically-vulnerable employees.” The corporate believes that the remittance business suffers from opaque and costly pricing constructions in addition to inefficient supply operations.

With the smartphone penetration price within the area persevering with to rise, Seize hopes that its cellular funds service will catch on and topple the standard cash switch operators.

In the intervening time, GrabPay is offered in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. GrabPay began its Philippines operations final October 8.