Mumbai, Jun 12 (KNN)  The Western Union has joined hands with private sector lender IndusInd Bank to extend help to small businesses so they can pay their overseas vendors.

The decision followed after the Reserve Bank made it mandate of allowing only banks to facilitate outward trade remittances, according to Western Union Business Solutions (WUBS) global president Raj Agrawal who was quoted in a media report.

He also informed that in order to avail the facility, customers will need to have a current account with IndusInd Bank.

Further, the importing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will have to pay a fee to IndusInd, which will be arrived at after calculating for money wire charges and foreign exchange spread, for sending money to the vendor.

The banker was optimistic about the service which would help attract customers.

An average ticket size of an SME transaction through WUBS is about USD 17,000 globally, he said adding he expects this to be half or around USD 9,000 here.

However, he did not give a target on the volume of payments it expects to facilitate from the country.

This is a big opportunity as India imports heavily.   The service will be available in 22 cities in the country where IndusInd has branches.  (KNN)