Reliance Money, on Saturday, unveiled the new brand identity for Travelamate Services and announced major business plans for its money changing services and full-fledged money transfer business.

The new brand identity for Travelmate, which will now be known as Reliance Money Express, was unveiled here, by Reliance Money Director and CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay in the presence of Worldwide CEO of Western Union Christina Gold.

Sharper focus

Travelmate Services, a part of Kuoni Group, was acquired by Reliance in November 2006 and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Capital. The company has been in the Money Transfer Services (MTS) and Full-Fledged Money Changing (FFMC) business in the country since 1993. 

“The new name and brand identity would bring sharper focus and align the MTS and FFMC business more closely with the core business of financial distribution being carried out by Reliance Money,” said Bandyopadhyay.

“Reliance Money Express would significantly benefit from the rapidly expanding footprint of Reliance Money across the country as this would enable them to reach out to their customers more effectively and efficiently,” said Bandyopadhyay.

Elaborating on the potential of the MTS business in India, he added that India is the largest recipient of global remittance of around $27 billion which is more than 10 per cent of the total global remittance inflow of $240 billion.

This is continuously rising due to labour migration and increasing wages. Travelmate, now Reliance Money Express, is amongst the largest partners of Western Union in the country.

Currently Reliance Money Express operates through a network of 3,400 outlets spread over 800 cities and towns across India and handling close to 100,000 transaction per month with a daily average inward remittance of US$1.4 million.

Immense potential

Giving details of the FFMC business, Mr Bandyopadhyay said, “ The total forex and currency market size in India is around $7 billion and the same is growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 20 per cent per annum.”

We see immense potential in these business considering that availability of these services is very limited in the countr,” Bandyopadhyay added Reliance Money is planning to set up 10,000 web-enabled retail kiosks across the country, where the consumers would be able to execute their financial transactions.