The Defence Bank has joined forces with Western Union Business Solutions to offer both Australian and overseas service men and women serving in Australia access to international funds transfer via Internet banking.
The new service, which will be launched in June, closely follows the bank’s introduction of Australia’s first video banking call centre earlier this year. This represents yet another move by Defence Bank to better service its membership base that is spread across Australia and overseas, often in remote locations.
Defence Bank CEO Jon Linehan said: “This is an exciting initiative for our members. Both members of overseas forces serving here and our Defence personnel serving in other countries will be able to transfer money in a cost effective and convenient manner.
“We are the first mutual bank to take this step, recognising the important need of such a service for members. We anticipate there will be strong interest from Defence personnel.”
Mr Linehan also said it will be a simple process for members to transfer money online. “Members will be able to access this service by simply selecting the ‘Overseas Payments’ menu tab once they have securely signed into Online Banking.
“They will then be given an option of nominating the foreign currency equivalent in Australian dollars, or the required amount of foreign currency.
“Once they have provided the beneficiary’s banking details and accepted the currency conversion quote, confirmation of the transaction will be provided both onscreen and via an email receipt.
“Initially there will be 43 currencies available and it is envisaged that this will increase to 130 currencies later this year.”