Customers can send or receive money from bank branches across Egypt, through the agreement signed between Western Union, a leader in money transfer and global payment services, and Alex Bank.

Under the agreement, Alex Bank will initially provide the service in 50 select branches across the country and the number of branches will be increased to over 120 by the end of the first quarter nex year.

Jean Claude Farah, Western Union's senior vice president, Middle East and Africa, said: "Western Union connects consumers in some of the most remote corners of Egypt to the rest of the world by maintaining an unsurpassed agent network of over 90 locations across Egypt; and 515,000 retail locations in 200 countries and territories."

"This agreement will take our agent locations to over 200 owing to their nation wide network of branches. Over 6 million Egyptians live abroad, a number that's continuously growing, and so is the need for a money transfer service that's reliable and easy to use but also convenient in terms of accessibility for the sender and the receiver," she added.

Bruno Gamba, chairman of Alex Bank, added, "Western Union represents the latest in the Intesa Sanpaolo Group's continuous efforts to provide world class services throughout our network. Both entities, with the support of the Central Bank of Egypt, have put in a tremendous effort to bring this to light."

Hatem Sleiman, Western Union's regional vice president, near East, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Sudan, said: "Remittances are an essential source of income for migrant families, meeting as much as 40 percent of household expenses. With nearly two decades of experience in providing money transfer services in Egypt, we see the need to extend our services to as many consumers as possible by growing our agent base and number of locations."

According to the 2013 Migration and Development Brief of the World Bank, remittance flows to the Mena region are expected to grow by five to six per cent during 2013-2015, mainly driven by Egypt but also boosted by the performance forecasted for the other key remittance recipient countries of the region. - TradeArabia News Service