Western Union Financial Services, one of the world's money transfer giants, is going to strengthen its position in China by tapping into SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and developing innovative products.

"We spotted a huge amount of cash flowing from Chinese SMEs in Russia, Spain and Italy back to China, which are emerging niche markets for us," Ian Marsh, senior vice-president and managing director of Western Union Asia-Pacific, said in an exclusive interview with China Daily yesterday.

Through co-operation with the China Post and the Agricultural Bank of China, Western Union had 25,000 co-operating partner locations throughout the country as of this month.

With more than 100 authorized flagship locations in 15 provinces, its distribution network in China increased 20 percent last year.

"We are looking forward to another growth around 14 to 16 percent this year," Marsh added.

Statistics shows that 45 million Chinese live overseas, of which nearly 7 million are new immigrants. "They provide tremendous business potential for money transfer firms," said Marsh.

Western Union's Chinese locations accounted for 10 percent of the firm's global business, "thanks to the huge population and big size of the country."

To further enhance its stance in China, Western Union will develop more Chinese-tailored products. For instance, the company launched a Chinese New Year programme in eight countries in 2003. The number will increase to 22 this year.

The company will also introduce its Western Union Gold Card to the Chinese market this year "to build the customer loyalty and speed up the processing."

"We will continue to invest in both key send-and-receive countries important to Chinese consumers, which means investment here in China as well as in countries where Chinese communities have a significant presence - for example, the US, Canada, Italy and Australia," said Marsh.

Marsh said Western Union's major competitors are mainly underground service providers rather than other foreign players.

"The real competitors for us are the informal channels the underground channels," Marsh explained. "We estimate probably US$11 billion worth of inbound remittances are coming into China, and there may be another US$9 to 11 billion which we do not know about."

According to a report from the World Bank, China received US$21.3 billion in recorded remittances in 2005, with possibly 50 percent more sent through informal channels.

Shying away from price slashing to keep up with competition, Marsh said Western Union would instead focus on secure and reliable services.

"Providing customers with easy, secure services is the best way to fight the underground channels," Marsh said.

Apart from the illegal services, traditional telegraph services over bank counters also compete with Western Union.

(China Daily January 11, 2006)