MANILA – International money transfer company MoneyGram is bent on expanding its market share by further boosting its products and services to reach more potential clients in key markets in the Asia Pacific and the Middle East regions.
“The company continues to gain market share. We believe that we have a positive brand message that resonates well with our consumers,” said Grant Lines, senior vice president for Asia Pacific, South Asia and Middle East.
Lines, who was just recently appointed to his new position, hopes to bring the regions, the markets and its consumers closer to the company.
“My role is a new role for the organization. My responsibility for Asia pacific, South Asia and the Middle East I think that is a reflection of how those markets have grown today. There’s tremendous growth opportunity that our company sees so were moving forward,” he said.
Lines cited World Bank data in 2012 that ranked the Philippines as 3rd after China and India in terms of highest remittances received, totaling $24 billion.
He said “MoneyGram's goal is to be the preferred money transfer provider,” that would cater to the needs of its consumers by offering a variety of money transfer options like the traditional cash to cash and innovations such as direct to account online, mobile, kiosk and ATM.
“Our company is growing. In 2012 we added 43,000 agent locations. At the start of 2013, we have 310,000 agent locations,” he said.
In the Philippines, MoneyGram has an extensive coverage of 9,500 locations nationwide, with 3,000 offering convenient services such as US dollar payout; and 200 locations providing a 24-hour service.
Alex Lim, MoneyGram’s country manager for the Philippines, projects double digit growth this year.
“There's a high demand of Filipinos everywhere you go. As long as there is a demand, MoneyGram will make sure that we have the right product and service,” he said
Remas Ho, MoneyGram’s regional director for Asia, said that they see growth in different channels. "What MoneyGram is trying to do is we provide all the convenient options for senders and receivers to make sure their money go though the process and receive safely here in the Philippines," Ho said.
Lim further said that they plan to expand in terms of locations and get more new agents to join MoneyGram.
“We have those two things in plan and next few weeks or months we'll be announcing our new partners,” Lim said.
Operating in 197 countries, MoneyGram has more than doubled the numbers of their agent locations from 143,000 in 2007 to 310,000 at the start of 2013.
MoneyGram’s other value-added services include a 24-hour toll-free hotline, as well as a 10-minute money transfer guarantee.
source: abs-cbnnews.com
