It is right in the midst of Diwali season, and money transfers back to India are in full flow. With the large Indian population in Singapore and the amount of trade between the two countries, you will find a number of providers and methods available when you need to make a money transfer.
In addition, given the Rupee’s falling trend, monetary experts are predicting an increase in remittances. Both banks such as DBS and money transfer services offer a variety of options for transferring money.
According to a recent World Bank report, India recorded over USD69 billion in remittance inflows in 2017, a 10% rise since 2016, and the amount has only gone up in 2018. With remittances on the rise, more and more varied money transfer options are on offer.
Let's take a look at some quick and convenient ways in which you can send money back home to India from overseas.
The Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Foreign Exchange service of SingX claims to bring consumers together on a shared platform. The fintech start-up launched an online remittance platform that charges consumers a transaction fee ranging from 0.3-0.5 per cent of the amount to be transferred, compared with up to 8 per cent levied elsewhere, according to an official statement. Licensed and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, customers in Singapore transfer their money to SingX’s local account and the firm transfers an equivalent amount, minus fees and charges, from its Indian fund to the destination. A spokesman said the company is trying to promote other corridors as well, such as the US, UK, Australia etc, and currently offers more than 30 between various countries, which could be relevant for NRIs that send money for their children studying overseas, property payments, investments and the like.
The firm has Atul Garg as its Principal Founder, who has over 25 years of banking and payments experience with Bank of America and American Express.
InstaReM (short for Instant Remittance), founded by Prajit Nanu and Michael Bermingham, is a Singapore-headquartered Fintech company offering digital cross-border money transfers to individuals and businesses
The founders say they developed a solution to provide a transparent service for overseas money transfer with close to live exchange rates. InstaReM was incorporated in Singapore in August 2014 based on the premise of online instant remittances.
Prajit Nanu, co-founder of InstaReM said, “Our company is able to transfer funds within 24 hours in Asia, compared to the average two to four days transfer by banks. We want to drive the adoption rate of technological innovations across both business as well as individual consumers.”
One of Singapore’s most prominent banks, you can send money via the digibank app, or iBanking, or at any DBS branches to India conveniently and at competitive rates. Currently, DBS Remit provides same-day transfers to India for no fees.
DBS Bank has a very extensive network of correspondent banks and overseas branches. As such, you can receive funds in various currencies from most parts of the world.
eRemit is an online banking service which allows customers to remit to India by debiting their account with DBS/POSB/Standard Chartered/UOB/OCBC or Citibank (members of the eNets Bank).
This facility can be used by all individuals who are Residents of Singapore like Singapore Citizens/Permanent Residents/Employment Pass/Dependant Pass/Work Permit holders who have registered as e-remit customers with SBI Singapore. The maximum amount that can be transacted through eNets is limited to SGD20,000 per day.
Continuing its international expansion efforts to bring its service to more overseas Indian communities worldwide, Remitly, a private digital remittance company headquartered in the United States, recently announced it has released an update to its money transfer service to India. The update moves its daily sending limit to USD30,000 on money sent to India from the United States. Remitly operates mainly in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia and helps individuals send money to India easier, faster, and at a lower cost.
Would you like to recommend any other banks/money transfer services that cater to Indians abroad? If yes, please tell us about them in the comments section below, or write to us at info@connectedtoindia.com.