Axis Bank strengthens Remittance offering in GCC, Plans to grow aggressively in fiscal 2016-17

Dubai, UAE, February 18, 2016:   Axis Bank, the third largest private sector bank in India, today announced its ambitious plans to further strengthen its Remittance offering in the GCC region. “The Bank continues to expand its Partner network across the GCC region with specific focus on getting into more arrangements with Correspondent Banks while continuing to actively manage our large existing Exchange House relationships. This has resulted in a robust growth at a CAGR of 26% over the past 3 years in remittance volumes from UAE and we shall continue to look at growing aggressively for FY16-17 as well.”Mr. Rajiv Anand, Group Executive & Head, Retail Banking, Axis Bank said.

Axis Bank which caters to NRIs in UAE through its offices here and through tie ups with other banks and financial institutions in the GCC, offers completely automated remittance processing engine, AxisRemit Direct, available to Exchange Houses and Correspondent Banks. A complete suite of disbursement options is also available, which includes Instant credit to Axis Account Holders and instant seamless processing for third party account holders through all electronic payment modes - NEFT, RTGS and IMPS.

Elaborating on the distinctive features of Axis Bank’s Remittance Offering, Mr.Anand  said: “Our strategy of expanding our Partner network of Exchange Houses and Correspondent Banks in the region is to provide additional channels of money transfer to our existing NRI customers as well as to leverage these relationships to acquire new NRI customers. To support these remittance relationships, we have a versatile platform that supports a range of message transmission modes from API-based integration for Banks and large Exchange Houses to file-based transmission and transaction-level input for Partners with small to medium scale operations. In-built business validations that automate compliance checks, would ensure regulatory adherence with minimal manual intervention. The platform is in the process of further enhancement with additional payment options being enabled that align directly with the NRI’s needs in India allowing our Partners to offer these value added services to their customers.”

He said a dedicated operations unit, Centralized Remittance Hub, has also been setup to provide efficient operational support and customer service to our Institutional Remittance Partners. In addition, Online FX Booking Portal, FX Connect, which allows our Partners to carry out real time FX trades with the Bank has also been offered.

“GCC and Africa form a significant part of the Bank’s business.  Through own offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and through business tie ups with other banks elsewhere, Axis Bank covers the region extensively,” Mr Anand said.

As DIFC grows further to become a formidable part of the local economy, Axis Bank will play more active role.  Through the Representative Offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, we support service requirements of NRIs who hold or want to hold a banking account in India. The representative offices are governed by the UAE Central Bank regulations”, said Mr.Anand.

Digitisation initiatives:

“I can proudly say that Axis Bank is at the helm of digitization. We are working towards embedding digital into our DNA and our digital strategy is quite holistic and is based on four pillars viz. customers, internal employees, branches and the social media footprint. With digitization, we can now open a customer account in few hours”, said Anand, on being the first movers in the digital banking space.

“Axis Bank has been on the forefront of leveraging technology to bring about a large scale transformation. We have not only focused on providing a seamless customer experience through mobile and Internet, we have also redesigned most of our core processes at the back-end leading to reduction in errors, turnaround- time and cost. We have empowered our sales staff in India to open savings accounts and cards on a real time basis using tablets”.

Axis Bank's Mobile App tops Forrester's review of Smartphone Mobile Banking Apps in India.

International presence

Axis Bank has already established its presence through branches in Singapore, Hong Kong DIFC – Dubai, Colombo and Shanghai, Representative Offices at Dubai & Abu Dhabi, Dhaka and Axis Bank UK Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bank. The Business offerings include Corporate Loans, Trade Finance Products, Debt Syndication and Liability Business. Total Overseas Assets of the Bank stood at USD 8.06 billion, as on December 31, 2015. 

The Bank offers a complete suite of banking products under its NRI Services for the Indian Diaspora living and working overseas. The product suite includes NRE/NRO Savings and Term Deposits, FCNR (B) Fixed Deposits, Resident Foreign Currency (RFC) Accounts for Returning NRIs, Savings account for Foreign Nationals etc. NRI customers can avail the facility of Loans / Overdrafts against their Term Deposits with the Bank. To cater to the various sub-segments, the Bank has recently introduced an enhanced product offering for Mariners, as well as premium accounts for foreign nationals. The Bank continues to invest aggressively in enhancing technology platforms to create convenient online solutions for NRI customers. 

The Bank offers a comprehensive 4-in-1 solution on the Axis Direct platform that provides integrated Trading,  Demat,  Savings and PIS accounts thereby allowing seamless movement of funds and shares. All Axis Bank branches in India are authorised to issue Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS) permissions to NRIs/PIOs who want to trade in the Indian secondary market.

Axis Bank provides 24/7 Phone Banking through dedicated toll free number (8000 3570 3218) to Diaspora for their India based banking requirements e.g Information about Products and Services, Information about Account Balance and Transactions, Information about status of Cheque Issued or Deposited, Information / Issues on usage of - ATM, Internet Banking or Mobile Banking and et al.

Loyalty Rewards: eDGE Loyalty Rewards is a bank wide loyalty program that allows customers to earn points on NRI Savings Account, Current Account, Debit Card, Credit Card, Loans, Forex&Inaam Account transactions. The points earned can be spent on over 500 exciting rewards spread across various categories like Little Treats, Amazing Deals, Favourites, What’s New etc.