Zimpapers Logo

WorldRemit VP Alice Newton-Rex

WorldRemit, the remittance start-up that has roughly 120 million mobile money accounts around the globe, announced Tuesday it will now let people make transfers using Google’s mobile pay wallet.

In a press release, the company said users can now send money internationally and reach millions of people using mobile pay accounts. By connecting directly with Android Pay, WorldRemit customers can transfer money instantly across continents in just five taps — without entering credit card or 3DS details, the company said in the release.

Using mobile money, a recipient customer can then pay for school fees, utility bills and groceries among other things directly from their mobile phones — without the need for 3G or Wi-Fi.

As Android Pay is supported by industry standard tokenisation, payments are sent with a virtual account number providing an extra layer of security, it noted in the press release.

WorldRemit claims to send money to more mobile money accounts than any other operator in the world. The company enables migrants to send money from their smartphones in over 140 countries to be paid out in cash, paid into a bank account or into a mobile money account cross-border.

“Currently 60 percent of WorldRemit app users are on Android, which is also by far the most popular mobile operating system in the developing world, where 2 billion people are still unbanked, but critically half a billion use their mobiles as a bank account,” said Alice Newton-Rex, VP of product at WorldRemit, in the release.

“This integration with Android Pay is the next logical step of our mobile first approach and continues our commitment to providing greater financial inclusion.’’ For Google, the addition of WorldRemit adds to an already busy month in terms of adding new customers and countries.

Earlier this month Google announced WorldRemit is live in Taiwan, marking the thirteenth country for the mobile pay service.

According a report, the entrance into Taiwan comes on the heels of entering Russia and Canada in the past several days. – Online