Expanding upon its fast remittance service in the United Arab Emirates, the Emirates NBD bank is extending its money transfer capabilities to the United Kingdom.
The DirectRemit service will enable the large British population in the UAE to send funds to family members' Lloyds Bank accounts in less than 60 seconds and to other U.K.-based banks within an hour. DirectRemit operates through the Emirates NBD Online Banking service.
The service will be free to users and would transfer money at "competitive exchange rates," according to a release from Emirates.
In addition to remittances, DirectRemit users make high-speed payments for mortgages, insurance plans or investments. Another use case is for UAE residents who may have to frequently send money to the U.K. in support of children studying there or spending holidays in the U.K.
"DirectRemit is amongst our most popular services as it provides customers with an on-the-go, yet safe, channel to transfer money," Suvo Sarkar, executive vice president and group head for retail banking and wealth management at Emirates NBD, said in a Wednesday press release.
The bank considers the U.K. "an important remittance corridor for a wide cross-section of our customers in the UAE" and DirectRemit brings an added convenience to their daily banking, Sarkar added.
Since the introduction of the DirectRemit service to India in 2014, the bank expanded it to the Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Egypt prior to the U.K. service.
