Erste Bank introduces automated Western Union money sending and receiving forms

Zagreb, 23 June 2015 – Erste&Steiermärkische Bank d.d. (Erste banka) is the first in the Croatian market to introduce automated Western Union money transfer forms that make the service even quicker, as the customers no longer have to manually fill in the forms to send or receive money transfers.

The service available at all Erste Bank offices in Croatia makes money transfers even more practical: it now takes mere minutes to transfer money to more than 50,000 locations in 200 countries and territories where Western Union is available. Croatian customers are able to send and receive Croatian kunas by Western Union and they do not have to be Erste Bank customers or even have accounts open at any bank to be able to carry out money transfers.

The money sending and receiving service works in several simple steps. A client who wants to send money has to present a valid ID, provide basic information about the recipient, hand over the money that needs to be transferred and pay the transfer fee. The client then signs a printed form and gets a MTCN control number, which he sends to the recipient of the money together with transaction details. If the sender chooses to leave his phone number, he will receive a text message notifying him that the recipient has received the money.

A client who receives money can withdraw it at one of the Bank’s offices. He has to have the MTCN control number, which he should request from the sender, present a valid ID and provide basic information about the sender, and sign the printed form.

The money sending and receiving service at Erste Bank has been available since 2001 and the number of transfer transactions is increasing continually. Western Union is mostly used to send and receive money international, but it can be used for transfers within Croatia as well. The leading countries from which transfers have been coming to Croatia lately include Germany, USA, Switzerland, Canada and Austria. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Germany are the most frequent destination countries of transfers from Croatia.