Regional posts join Emirates Post in implementing new electronic money transfer service

The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the 24th UPU Congress in Geneva recently by postal leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates.
Other Arab countries are expected to join the regional network by the end of 2008, it was revealed at the Congress.

The project, launched by the Arab League and implemented by a regional steering committee chaired by Emirates Post and supported by French Post, will allow participating postal operators to conduct money transfer operations on a multilateral basis.

"The multilateral agreement will allow the Arab region and some countries in Asia and Africa to provide reliable and cost-effective money transfer services through secure channels to migrant workers,"

said Ibrahim Bin Karam, CEO of Emirates Post.

"The service has huge potential as over 80% of the UAE population consists of expatriates, and the situation is somewhat similar in other Gulf countries."

The new service gives a boost to UPU's efforts to improve access to secure and reliable money transfer services through formal channels for rural populations, and more specifically for migrant workers.

UPU's IFS is a reliable, adaptable and easy-to-use tool and can be installed in the remotest areas of the world. The UPU anticipates that financial services could generate up to 50% of a country's postal revenues, and by promoting IFS, the dominance of big players would be reduced, thus offering customers, especially migrant workers, a cost-effective system of electronic money transfer.