PayPal's digital money transfer service Xoom will allow Japanese immigrants and others in the U.S. to send money for deposit into bank accounts in Japan.
Xoom will partner with overseas transfer services provider Queen Bee Capital Co., Ltd., to provide the service to Mizuho Bank Ltd., The Bank of Tokyo, Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Japan Post Bank, Resona Bank Ltd. and others.
The money transfer service enables Japanese immigrants to send money to bank accounts in Japan directly from their U.S. bank accounts, credit cards or debit cards. The transfers can be made from a computer, tablet or mobile phone.
“At Xoom, our goal is to make sending money around the world quick and easy," Helen Li, marketing manager for East Asia at Xoom, said in a Jan. 3 press release. "That’s why we’re excited to extend Xoom’s services into Japan.”
Xoom users are able to send money from their mobile phones "in a few clicks to deposit money into their loved one's bank accounts in Japan," Li added. "No more waiting in line at the bank to wire money."
Users can send more than $1,000 with no fees, and pay $9.99 for any transactions less than $1,000. Xoom says its provides locked-in exchange rates on yen deposits to Japan through the Xoom app, which operates on Android and iOS devices.
Citing Migration Policy Institute research, Xoom says approximately 340,000 immigrants from Japan live in the U.S, and Japan received $1.5 billion in remittances from the U.S. in 2015.
Prior to that deal, Xoom had spent several months strengthening its presence with service expansion into China and
With PayPal backing, Xoom positions itself as a money transfer option in those countries, countering recent offerings such as those established last month between
The services have become more prominent through mobile technology in the past few years as alternative choices to bank money transfers and wire services like Western Union or MoneyGram.
