Western Union Money Launch of Outward Remittance from India

            Readers are familiar with the Western Union Inward remittance facility.

This week, Western Union Business Solutions – Indian Office has announced a new service i.e Outward Remittance. Wait, don’t jump the gun, the new service is to l allow foreign universities and higher education institutions to accept tuition payments from Indian students in Indian rupees.

            The estimated market is 2lacs+ each year. This is the 2^nd largest market in the world after China.

            The process flow is simple: -

01) The fees can be remitted only by prospective students of participating schools and universities.

02)It will be offered by Weizmann Forex and Paul Merchants Ltd, the two largest Western Union agents in India. ,

03) Weizmann Forex and Paul Merchants Ltd have presence at over 500 locations across the country.

04)Students need to call a toll-free number and after updating the required information, request a for a house visit.

05)A trained representative of Western Union Agents i.e Paul Merchants or Weizmann Forex, will visit to complete the documentation.

06)On completion of the documentation, the INR will be collected and outward remittance to the student’s educational institution will be done.

Western Union Money Launch of Outward Remittance from India

            Readers are familiar with the Western Union Inward remittance facility.

This week, Western Union Business Solutions – Indian Office has announced a new service i.e Outward Remittance. Wait, don’t jump the gun, the new service is to l allow foreign universities and higher education institutions to accept tuition payments from Indian students in Indian rupees.

            The estimated market is 2lacs+ each year. This is the 2^nd largest market in the world after China.

            The process flow is simple: -

01) The fees can be remitted only by prospective students of participating schools and universities.

02)It will be offered by Weizmann Forex and Paul Merchants Ltd, the two largest Western Union agents in India. ,

03) Weizmann Forex and Paul Merchants Ltd have presence at over 500 locations across the country.

04)Students need to call a toll-free number and after updating the required information, request a for a house visit.

05)A trained representative of Western Union Agents i.e Paul Merchants or Weizmann Forex, will visit to complete the documentation.

06)On completion of the documentation, the INR will be collected and outward remittance to the student’s educational institution will be done.

Western Union Money Launch of Outward Remittance from India

            Readers are familiar with the Western Union Inward remittance facility.

This week, Western Union Business Solutions – Indian Office has announced a new service i.e Outward Remittance. Wait, don’t jump the gun, the new service is to l allow foreign universities and higher education institutions to accept tuition payments from Indian students in Indian rupees.

            The estimated market is 2lacs+ each year. This is the 2^nd largest market in the world after China.

            The process flow is simple: -

01) The fees can be remitted only by prospective students of participating schools and universities.

02)It will be offered by Weizmann Forex and Paul Merchants Ltd, the two largest Western Union agents in India. ,

03) Weizmann Forex and Paul Merchants Ltd have presence at over 500 locations across the country.

04)Students need to call a toll-free number and after updating the required information, request a for a house visit.

05)A trained representative of Western Union Agents i.e Paul Merchants or Weizmann Forex, will visit to complete the documentation.

06)On completion of the documentation, the INR will be collected and outward remittance to the student’s educational institution will be done.

A new eProduct – Receive funds to your ICICI Bank Visa Debit Card

            If you are holding an ICICI Bank Saving Bank account, you must have received an email from Shri Kusal Roy, regarding the launch of a new eProduct.

            The ICICI Bank Visa Debit Card is all the information the overseas sender requires to remit money to the associated ICICI Bank Visa Debit Card.

The highlights are:

01) Completely cashless transaction.

02)Amount is credited without minutes

03)Works 24*7, as there is no human intervention once the Sender remits the money.

04)NIL charges for the beneficiary, as all the charges are paid by the sender.

The above Product is built around 'Visa Fast Funds’, product.

The following are the Terms and Conditions

01) This service is regulated by the RBI and the following rules apply:

02)Remittance can only be received for purpose of personal maintenance. Business and investment transactions cannot be routed using this service.

03)A single transaction cannot exceed the Indian Rupee equivalent of USD 2,500.

04)Not more than 30 transactions can be received in a calendar year. As an added measure of safety, ICICI Bank will restrict the service to 2 transactions per month per beneficiary.

05)ICICI Bank additionally maintains its own risk and security profiling systems and reserves the right to decline suspicious transactions.

Go ahead and unlock the potential of your power-packed ICICI Bank Visa Debit Card!

The product should attract many takers, as the funds move from the Sender to the Beneficiary very fast and the Beneficiary no additional authentication to withdraw the funds from his/her accounts.

Re-disseminated by Prashant N. Banker by daytime, Blogger by night.

Printing of MICR Code and IFSC Code on Passbook/Statement of Account

RBI, DPSS has announced another customer-friendly initiative. It has advised all Chairman and Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer of all banks participating in RTGS, NEFT and NECS to make arrangements for Printing of MICR Code and IFSC Code on Passbook/Statement of Account

The relevant RBI notification can be accessed here.

The display of MICR Code and IFSC Code is presently available only on the Cheque leaf of the account holder.

MICR code is necessary for all Electronic Clearing Service (ECS – Credit and Debit) transactions.

Similarly, the IFSC code is a pre-requisite for NEFT and RTGS transactions.

To improve customer efficiency levels and to ensure a high success rate for ePayments, RBI has advised Banks to take necessary steps to provide this information as indicated above in all passbook / statement of account to their account holders.

The respective Banks have to furnish to RBI, an action taken report within 15 days of receipt of this circular.

3 immediate benefits of this RBI Notification.

1. Bank customers have an additional authenticated source of MICR/IFSC Code.
2. Ease in sharing MICR/IFS Code with any remitters.
3. Increase in success rate for ePayments.

RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) – India's Large Value ePayment System open up to 20.00hrs on 31/03/2012.

This has been done in view of:-

• the expected huge volumes on 31^{stMar 2012,}
• 31^st Mar 2012 being the last working day for financial institutions
• 31^st March 2012 being a Saturday

Reserve Bank of India, DPSS has announced that RTGS will be open up-to 20.00hrs for Customer Transactions and upto 22.00hrs for Inter-Bank Transactions.

The announcement has been made in advance to enable all the participants I.e Bank Branches, Bank's customers, Bank's Staff, IT Support to be prepared for the extended window.

Bank's Treasury usually does not function on Saturday, but on 31^st March 2012, have to make an exception, and be tracking the RTGS Outwards/Inwards of their respective banks.

RBI by announcing the extended timings two days earlier has demonstrated its willingness to go the extra mile, to ensure customer delight.

Now, it is up to the Bank's customers to make the best of this extension.

4 top advantages of this extension :

1. No last minute surprises for the Participants.

2. Resources can be planned better, either by Banks or the Bank's customers.

3. Piling up of messages at the various Payment Gateways will be minimized.

4. Encourage customers to migrate to Safe ePayments

50% Off – Indian Cheques, Drafts, Pay Orders life slashed from 6 months to 3 months

Well, the day of reckoning has finally come. From 01/04/2012, the lifespan of Cheques, drafts will be reduced from 6 months to 3 months.

This is in accordance with the RBI notification dt04/11/2011.

5 Points of this change:

1. All Cheques,Drafts I.e paper based clearing instruments will be affected.
2. The lead time of 4 months+, has enabled all the players in the financial market to be acquainted with the new rules.
3. This will increase the efficiency in the Cheque Collection process, as the lead time has been lessened.
4. This will reduce the inefficiencies associated with post-dated cheques.
5. This will encourage migration to electronic Payments, ePayments are instant

15 practices in other parts of the world.

Cheque/Drafts are valid for a certain amount of time after the date of issued.

The following are the Cheques/Draft validity rules in major countries of the world

1. Australia : - Cheques - Most banks in Australia accept cheques regardless of the date. Bank drafts expire after 6 months. After 6 months upto years, the drafts can be presented directly to the issuing Australian bank.

2. New Zealand - 6 months

3. Brazil – Cheque/Drafts 6 months

4. China - Cheques still not popular

5. France - One year, one week, and one day (373 days)

6. Germany - Cheques - Presentation period is eight days. However, a cheque is valid without time limit unless revoked by customer. Draft - No time limit

7. Greece – Cheque/Drafts 5 years
   
   
8. Italy - Cheques - No time limit. Bank Drafts - 30 days

10. Indonesia – Cheque/Drafts 90 days

11. Japan – Cheques are very rare.
    
    
12. Spain - Cheques/Drafts - No time limit

13. Portugal - Cheques 8 Days
    
    
    14) Switzerland - Cheques are valid for six months and eight days from date of issue. However, after this period, they still can be be cleared by special arrangement with the issuer or his/her bank manager. Bank draft validity periods - 6 months

15. United States of America - Cheques are valid, legally, for six months, then can be considered “stale dated”. A peculiar feature of USA banking rules, is that the Cheques may be returned for a period of seven years for fraud or forged endorsements. There is no time limit for encashment of drafts, but after 6 months, drafts are paid with extra due diligence. 

Will the Indian Online channel security market too explode?

According to ABI Research, the US market will require 1.8 billion unit’s of  one-time-password generators, portable smart card readers, and USB tokens,  by 2016, for  increased security requirements for online transactions will create

As ePayments including Internet / Mobile banking are on increasing trend in India, there will be demand for  one-time-password generators, portable smart card readers, and USB tokens.

All the above, are part of the 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) cycle, which is becoming the norm for all all BFSI (Banking, Finance Services, Insurance) transactions.

So, I will explain in brief the overall view of the above 3 security products.

One-time-password generators, portable smart card readers, and USB tokens are hardware based solutions

What are one-time password generators?

A one-time password (OTP) is a password that is valid for only one login session or transaction. The session might last from 30 mts to 120mts depending on the tranmission mode of the OTP.

In contrast to static passwords, they are not vulnerable to replay attacks. This means that, if a potential intruder manages to record an OTP that was already used to log into a service or to conduct a transaction, he or she will not be able to abuse it since it will be no longer valid.

OTP’s cannot be memorised, as they are generated when required or are selected from a set of OTP’s on a paper .

OTP’s are primarily generated by time-synchronised or mathematical algorithms method.

Each method has its own plus and minus points.

OTP’s are delivered via

a) Text messaging.

b) Mobile Phones.

c) Proprietary tokens.

d) Web-based methods.

e) Paper

Yes, Paper, in some countries viz Germany and Austria, for  online banking, the bank sends to the user a numbered list of OTPs that are printed on paper. For every online transaction, the user is required to enter a specific OTP from that list. As and when an OTP’s is used, it gets expired. Another interesting use of a pre-calculated OTP Paper is the replacement of  the easy to guess security questions on websites.

In recent times, OTP’s have been part of the MITM (Man-in-the-Middle) attacks. Hence, IT Security are finding various ways to make strong OTP’s.

What are portable smart card readers?

Smart cards are being used worldwide to secure identities in many applications, such as bank payment cards, employee access badges, government identity cards and health care IDs.

The Smartcard require readers to read the information stored on the Smartcard and hence, portable smart card readers are being introduced by IT Security companies.

Cardholders can use the reader to pay more securely or to authenticate their network identities with banks, employers, government agencies, or healthcare providers.

The readers enable cardholders to use their smart cards anytime, anywhere with PCs, the Internet or other terminals. Depending on the Smart card and the reader model, some  allow physical access to buildings, too.

What are USB tokens?

As the name suggests, USB is a security token which may be a physical device that an authorized user of computer services is given to ease authentication  or a software token.

The function of  Security token is to prove one's identity electronically (as in the case of a customer trying to access their bank account). The token is used in addition to or in place of a password to prove that the customer is who they claim to be. The token acts like an electronic key to access something.

There are four  types of tokens:

Static password.

Synchronous dynamic password

Asynchronous password

Challenge response

Security token is the “something you have”, used along with a PIN or password, the “something you know”.

The token can hold multiple types of credentials, including multiple certificates, key sets, finger-based biometric templates, user names and passwords and software token seed records. The main advantage of a USB token is that a smart card reader is not required.

The Indian consumers would be interested in the above 3 Security Products, to enhance their Internet/Mobile BFSI transactions.

A more detailed study on the pros and cons of each product, might help the BFSI companies to offer the safest possible product to their clients.