Sri Lanka’s premier non-interest based bank, Amãna Bank, now offers Western Union inward remittance services to its customers. Having rapidly grown its channel network to 24 branches and 600+ ATM access points, Amana Bank has focused on providing greater convenience and access to its customers. The addition of Western Union services to the Bank’s service portfolio will largely benefit the customers from the branches located in the eastern and central regions.

The Bank has tied up with MMBL Money Transfer (Pvt) Limited, a joint venture between Aitken Spence PLC & Mercantile Merchant Bank Ltd., which is one of Sri Lanka’s leading international money transfer providers offering Sri Lankans access to Western Union® Money TransferSM services and connecting to a global network of more than 489,000 Western Union® Agent locations in over 200 countries and territories1.

Speaking on the availability of Western Union services, the Bank’s Managing Director/CEO Mr Faizal Salieh said, “Most Sri Lankan expatriates workers employed and residing overseas use Western Union to remit funds faster and safer to their loved ones in Sri Lanka. Such remittances have shown an upward increase in recent years and have supported our country’s economy significantly. With Amãna Bank offering Western Union services, our customers can benefit from the convenience of receiving their money at our various network locations.”

Speaking on this Mr.Dinesh Mendis, Director Aitken Spence Group Ltd. and Managing Director of MMBL Money Transfer (Pvt.) Ltd. said, “Serving Sri Lankans who receive essential money from family and loved ones working and living overseas since 1993, MMBL Money Transfer offers Western Union® Money TransferSM services through its network of over 2,500 locations island-wide operated by banks, co-op rural banks, financial institutions and retail outlets; with its strategy to facilitate ‘right next door’ access to bring convenience to customers. Our tie up with Amãna Bank reinforces our commitment to continually strengthen our presence across Sri Lanka”.

1 Network data as of 31 December 2012.