Walmart launches global money transfer service

Retailer Walmart is pushing further into the financial sector through a service that lets people transfer money from its US stores to 200 countries.

  23 6 comments

Walmart launches global money transfer service

Editorial

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The firm has teamed up with Moneygram on Walmart2World, promising simple, low fees and competitive exchange rates. Transfers can be made from 4700 stores and take less than 10 minutes, with the funds delivered to agent locations around the world or into international bank or mobile wallet accounts.

The service builds on Walmart2Walmart, a domestic money transfer service launched four years ago which the company says has saved customers nearly $700 million in fees.

Kirsty Ward, VP, Walmart Services, says: "There are millions of people sending money around the world to help loved ones with everyday needs or in times of emergency. Walmart2World, Powered by Moneygram helps customers get money to family and friends across the world in minutes, and the new low fees mean more of their hard-earned cash goes where it’s needed most.”

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Comments: (6)

A Finextra member 

Up to 10 minutes for an electronic payment? Is that considered good? Doesn't sound like it to me! 

I've never really understood why retailers want to get into payments other than to cut costs. It's hardly their best area of expertise. If the main card schemes weren't so greedy with their fees it'd all be academic... 

Dinesh Katyal

Dinesh Katyal Director Product at Financial Data Exchange

Considering ACH takes a day within US, 10 min across countries is not that bad. The way I see it, the retail footprint is increasingly expensive with Amazon and online shopping so they're finding ways of maximizing the foot traffic. They're probably hoping that the increased foot traffic will drive more sales. Grocery stores experimented with bank branches and ATMs in store. I don't believe it worked well. However, times are different now so worth retrying.

Ketharaman Swaminathan

Ketharaman Swaminathan Founder and CEO at GTM360 Marketing Solutions

@FinextraMember: Are you aware of any product that does a cross-border payment originating from the USA in less than 10 minutes?

Chetan Ghadge

Chetan Ghadge Head of Payments solutions at Wipro

I would like to know the fees charged by Walmart. I think the fees charged by money transfer companies like Western union or money gram are still quite high ( 5 to 7 %). Off course for low value transactions these come out to be cheap compared to 35 USD that you have to pay for wire transfer , but i still think it is high .

Joel Hartshorn

Joel Hartshorn FinTech Consultant at CodeRazor

I believe it is 10 minutes for clearing AND settlement which is quite fast when compared to most all other payment rails. RIPPLE is even faster for cross-border as well as traditional payments. 

Anyways, the market potential is HUGE...(billion dollar market) given the size of the underbanked world.

Ketharaman Swaminathan

Ketharaman Swaminathan Founder and CEO at GTM360 Marketing Solutions

@JoelHartshorn: Do you know any cross-border payment method that even does only clearing in 10 minutes? Re. RIPPLE, is it for Fiat-to-Fiat or Crypto-to-Crypto?

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