- Customers of Varo will be able to place online money transfers from their mobile phones thanks to the new partnership with digital bank Varo
- Varo is the first US financial institution to both cover the whole country and be entirely focused on mobile
- “Together Varo and WorldRemit are turning traditional banking and money transfer services on its head, and delivering services that customers want via their smartphone 24/7”, said a WorldRemit spokesperson
International money transfer organisation WorldRemit has announced that it will work alongside a well-known US digital bank.
The partnership will be with Varo Money, which is a digital banking system.
It is the first mobile-focused country-wide bank in the US.
As part of the new arrangement, customers of Varo will be able to make cross border payments using WorldRemit’s payments infrastructure without having to leave the Varo app.
A press release from WorldRemit made it clear that the two firms have a “shared objective”.
This is “to deliver modern banking and money transfer services to consumers in a secure, convenient and cost effective way”, the release read.
According to Daniel Canning, who serves as the managing director for the Americas region at WorldRemit, this collaboration will turn traditional banking “on its head”.
“The banking and money transfer industries have been dominated by incumbent and offline providers requiring consumers to fit their lives into the limited opening hours and locations of bank branches, ATMs or money transfer agents”, he was quoted as saying.
“Together Varo and WorldRemit are turning traditional banking and money transfer services on its head, and delivering services that customers want via their smartphone 24/7”, he added.
For Varo, Jaime Jerusalmi – who is the firm’s head of partnerships – the “low cost” was an important factor to consider.
Jerusalmi also called the new pairing a chance for customers to “improve their financial lives”.
“Varo customers value being able to move money to loved ones easily and we’re always looking to add convenience to their lives”, he said.
“The partnership with WorldRemit will help Varo customers make international money transfers easily and at a low cost.”
“This is another step in the direction of helping our customers improve their financial lives”, he added.
There’s little doubting that mobile is, in many ways, the future of international money transfer.
There are plenty of statistics which show that this is the case.
One study found that well over half of people who use mobile banking services confirmed that they place cash transfers using their phones.
It’s therefore not a shock to see that WorldRemit is looking to ensure that it is a firm part of the mobile payments landscape.
Given that WorldRemit is entirely cashless, having a strong presence in the highly digital mobile banking sector makes a lot of sense.
To discover more about the activities of key firms in the online money transfer sector, just head over to our news pages.
