Al Ansari exchange opens 200th outlet

Al Ansari Exchange, a leading money transfer company, marked a new milestone with the opening of its 200th branch in the UAE.

The latest branch is the second branch of the company at Sahara Centre and one of the eight branches opened in the UAE this year, the exchange house said in a statement.

The company has plans to open another 25 branches before the end of next year, in preparation for the post-pandemic business upswing.

“The new branches are a testament to Al Ansari Exchange’s commitment to continuously enhance the customer’s experience whether in physical branches or through online platforms. It highlights the company’s strength and leadership in meeting its customers’ needs and will provide new job opportunities during the current challenging market conditions,” said the statement.

The opening ceremony was attended by Al Ansari Exchange’s Chairman Mohamed A. Al Ansari, Rashed A. Al Ansari the CEO, senior members of the management team and Akram Ammar, managing director of Sahara Centre.

“Expanding our branches is a key component of the company’s growth strategy and we are proud to have reached 200 branches across the UAE. We are constantly evaluating our footprint and branch portfolio to ensure that we are expanding where our customers need us to be,” said Mohamed A. Al Ansari.

The opening of the newest branch, which will strategically serve a diverse group of residents and business segments in the area, reflects Al Ansari’s success in overcoming the emerging global challenges.

“It reinforces our full readiness to enter a new phase of growth in the upcoming years. The growth and expansion of our network will allow us to offer a wide variety of employment opportunities for qualified UAE nationals and residents. All our branches fully complement our state-of-the-art technological solutions available on the Al Ansari Exchange Mobile App and other digital platforms,” he said.

Accounting for over 36 per cent of the local market share among other exchange companies, Al Ansari Exchange currently conducts more than 120,000 transactions per day and caters to the needs of more than three million customers monthly.

According to Rashed Al Ansari, a total of Dh113 billion was remitted in 2020 in the UAE through exchange companies, while Dh43.8 billion was transferred abroad via banks.

“While the share of exchange houses declined sharply by 18.1 per cent, banks boosted their remittance business by 9.8 per cent thanks to their advantage in online money transfer.”

He said the outlook for the remittance industry is getting bright with a 1.5 per cent surge in 2021.

“We are hopeful of recording a growth of 2.6 per cent as we increase our branch network.”

In 2020, the exchange firm had a positive remittance performance as it transferred a total of Dh40.2 billion and gained a 36 per cent market share among other exchange companies. After taking into account the outward personal remittances transferred via banks in the UAE of Dh43.8 billion combined, the company had 26 per cent share of the total remittances sent from the UAE in 2020.

The Al Ansari Exchange Mobile app was rated first in the UAE and second in the Middle East region on the Forbes Middle East list of the Top 15 Fintech Apps 2021 recently, highlighting the fact that the mobile application executed about 1.8 million transactions worth around $1.5 billion in 2020. As of August 2021, the app had recorded over 941,000 downloads with more than 850,000 active users, the company said.

— issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com