(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-24 11:54

China Everbright Bank said on Friday it is teaming up with Western Union Co to provide international money transfer services from December 1.

The services will be offered at 400 Everbright Bank branches in 36 major Chinese cities, featuring money transfers to and from more than 200 countries and territories, said Li Ziqing, vice president of the bank.

With Everbright Bank, Western Union is expanding in economically developed cities throughout China -- a complement to the company's existing network, which includes 25,000 locations set up through the Stated-owned Postal Savings Bank and the Agricultural Bank of China.

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The transfer service is a key step for Western Union to develop its business in China, which remains an attractive market, said Ian Marsh, Western Union Asia-Pacific executive vice president.

"Whenever we detect a gap in our network, we will find a financial institution to fill it," said Marsh. Everbright Bank was chosen as a partner because "it focuses on city-level locations," he said.

Increasing numbers of Chinese are moving abroad to study or work, it said, suggesting the Chinese remittance market is still expanding.

Western Union is not the only global money transfer company that sees China as a major market.

Last month, MoneyGram International president Phil Milne said that his company believes "the Asia-Pacific markets, especially the Chinese mainland, have excellent prospects."

MoneyGram International entered China in 1994. Cooperating with ICBC, the Bank of Communications and China Construction Bank, it has been expanding rapidly in Northeast China and the coastal provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang, which are home to many overseas Chinese.