Local bank starts remittance services on Dec 14

Cooperative Bank (CB) has linked up with the America-based international money transferring service Western Union for remittance to more than 200 countries, starting from December 14, a representative from CB bank said.

“We signed a contract with Western Union and started to transfer money overseas on December 14. Transferring money to Myanmar is fast now. The service charge depends on the amount of money transferred. Western Union get 75 per cent and CB bank 25 per cent of the service charges,” Pe Myint, CB bank managing director, said.


When someone transfers money to Myanmar through Western Union, they can do it in their respective country’s currency and CB bank will make the payment in Myanmar kyats, using the current exchange rate for kyats.

Western Union has linked up with United Amara Bank and Myanmar Oriental Bank in addition to CB bank. Western Union, as an industrialised monopoly, dominated the telegraph industry in the late 19th century. Currently Western Union is linked with over 200 countries for transferring money. It has over 510,000 agents all over the world and can transfer money to all countries which are connected with Western Union except North Korea, Somalia, Sudan and Iran.

Local private banks are mainly cooperating with banks from Japan, Singapore and Thailand to transfer money as the official money changer and to offer services for foreign banking.

source: Eleven Myanmar
http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/business/1842-local-bank-starts-remittance-services-on-dec-14