The National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) has joined hands with MoneyGram, to become the first Mena bank to offer international money transfer via mobile phones.

The service will cover more than 200,000 locations across 190 countries and territories around the world.

The agreement will make it easier and more convenient for consumers in the UAE to send money to family and friends around the world. The partnership also gives MoneyGram access to NBAD's account holders in the UAE and extends the benefits of safe and reliable money transfer services to a new category of consumers.

Arrow money transfers, including MoneyGram international remittances, can be carried out from a current account and prepaid cards.

“An overwhelming majority of expatriates in the UAE remit money to their families in their home countries. The bank wanted to bring to the market a product that serves this large demographic. We worked very methodically for more than a year with our partners to fine-tune the Arrow service to ready it for consumers to use it to conduct international remittances,” said Saif Al Shehhi, senior general manager of Domestic Banking Division at NBAD.

“With more than 4 billion mobile phones in use around the world today, we recognize the critical role that mobile technology is playing in the evolution of the remittance market,” added Nigel Lee, MoneyGram’s EVP for Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific.-TradeArabia News Service