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Often overlooked in the market for digital bill payments is the need for immigrants, expats, and other persons living in one country to pay bills to service providers based in another country. To make that connection, international remittance service WorldRemit Ltd. said on Monday it is working with bill-payment platform Paykii Inc. to allow users in the United States and four other countries to pay utility bills directly to providers in other countries.
The new service is aimed at addressing the issue of persons having to send checks or cash abroad to meet obligations. Often, these remittances are received by family members or other intermediaries, who then pay the bills. It could also expand 10-year-old WorldRemit’s global remittance business, which is based on mobile transfers.
“Our research shows that WorldRemit customers are regularly sending money for specific purposes, including bill payments which recipients pay in cash. This new service allowing our users to pay bills directly from abroad will make life easier for our customers, particularly in the current climate, by providing a convenient, end-to-end digital service,” said Cath Rooney, London-based WorldRemit’s head of product, in a statement.
The initial destination market is India, with more countries to follow this year, according to the companies, which are enabling bill payments from some 40 nations. India is said to be the world’s largest receiver of remittances, with more than $80 billion flowing into the country last year, according to World Bank data cited by WorldRemit and Paykii, which processes cross-border bill payments in 21 countries. The Western Union Co. and PayPal Holdings Inc.’s Xoom service are also among its remittance clients. Among the 40 countries served in the tie-up with WorldRemit are the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
Monday’s news follows WorldRemit’s announcement last month that it users can send remittances directly to the Alipay mobile app, a move widely seen as a bid to process a share of the $67 billion Chinese living abroad send home. In its latest funding round, WorldRemit raised $175 million last June, according to data from Crunchbase. The company’s services are digital-only on the send side.
