Case Study

Union Bank of India Delivers Remittances at ATMs

At Union Bank of India, 90% of remittances pass through branches. With ACI BASE24, 8 million card holders use ATMs 24/7 for remittances.

Union Bank of India won an ACI Excellence Award for this project in 2012. Learn more at http://www.aciworldwide.com/awards

Union Bank of India has 3,200 Branches, 3,800 ATMs and 30 million customers.
Remittances represent a large market and currently 90% of remittances pass through branches. The banks want to be more efficient in how they process these and offer customers the opportunity to interact with them twenty-four hours a day.
By allowing remittances through their ATMs Union Bank of India have freed their 8 million card holding customers from needing to enter the branch or contact a call center. This has ensured increased customer loyalty and retention for the bank.

—TRANSCRIPT—

Lalit: Union Bank of India is a 92-year-old bank, headquartered at Mumbai. We take pride that the foundation stone of this bank was laid by the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

We are a bank with 3,200 branches, 3,800 ATMs. $80 billion business makes, and 30 million+ customers. The domestic remittances in India is valued at about $50 billion US Dollars at the present time; it is growing 15% year-on- year. Interestingly, 90% of these remittances are flowing through banks. There is a tremendous pressure on banks to handle remittances, and each bank wants to be better and efficient on this.

Union Bank has a well-defined strategy for customer empowerment. We aim at providing solutions to customers 24/7 without the need to visit the branch or call centers. This implementation is in the same direction where we have made available multiple remittance options on ATMs.

We have almost 8 million card holders in the bank, as against 1 million internet banking customers. It was our natural choice to provide as many services possible on the ATM. That’s how the remittance at ATMs took its shape, and we decided that we will offer remittance services on our ATMs 24/7.

Ajit: BASE24 is a switching system. It allows money to be switched from the sender to the beneficiary. We have even many transfer faculties, like IMPS, that is Inter-Bank Money Payment System. We have given NEFT services, that is the National Fund Transfer System, and also e-cash.

Lalit: My customers are extremely happy at having the freedom of doing remittances on ATMs 24/7. This is a unique facility which no other bank is offering, and we hope this will go a long way in customer retention, and also increasing customer loyalty for the bank. SUBSCRIBE HERE TO SEE MORE GREAT VIDEOS
► http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=ACIWorldwide

SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST CHANNEL
► https://itunes.apple.com/gw/podcast/aci-worldwide-podcast-series/id820468115?mt=2

CONNECT WITH ACI WORLDWIDE
Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/aciworldwide
Twitter ► https://twitter.com/aci_worldwide
LinkedIn ► https://www.linkedin.com/company/aci-worldwide
Google+ ► https://plus.google.com/+Aciworldwideinc/

Owing to its rapidly growing economy, India is seeing the volume of domestic remittances grow by 15% year over year. With 90% of those remittances channeled through banks, Union Bank of India needed to increase its processing power while freeing staff to concentrate on other banking needs.


“90% of India’s domestic remittances funnel through banks.”

Lalit Sinha

General Manager at Union Bank of India

Domestic Remittance Load Pressures Bank to Find an Alternative

Supporting domestic remittances was placing such pressure on its branches that Union Bank of India decided to provide an alternative channel that would be capable of providing a 24×7 facility while remaining highly secure, reliable, fast and easy to administer. With this objective in mind, the bank decided to implement a new solution across its extensive ATM network.

Union Bank Creates an ATM Solution to Handle Remittances

The bank knew it could adapt its ATMs to support the solution because they were based on ACI Enterprise Payments Platform, which not only facilitates several types of payments and transfers, but also ensures each and every transaction is as secure and easy to administer as possible. This is essential as domestic remittances are monitored strictly by the Indian regulator, which allows for several national schemes, the most important of which are the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) and Inter-bank Mobile Payment (IMPS). The regulator also monitors the Union Bank of India’s own Union eCash mobile-based remittance service.

Union Becomes First Bank to Make Inter-Bank Transfers on ATMs

The project was undertaken as a part of well-defined strategy to empower the bank’s customers through greater use of self-service options. It is the first bank in India to make inter-bank financial transfers available on ATMs, as opposed to branch or internet banking channels, which makes the facility available to a far broader customer base. It also relieved pressure on branch staff, improving productivity and allowing them to spend quality time with customers on sales and service. It has also provided a convenient, self-service and popular solution that enables the bank to improve customer acquisition and retention rates and enhance its bottom line through eventual fee-based income.