Money-transfer company MoneyGram International, Inc., on Tuesday said that it has struck a deal with the Bank of China that will give MoneyGram a presence at the bank’s 10,000 mainland China branches—a move that will triple the Minneapolis-based company’s presence in the country.
MoneyGram will begin expansion this month across China’s populous southern and eastern coast. The company expects to complete the expansion in 2011.
“This partnership brings significant benefits to MoneyGram, the Bank of China, and to the billions of people in this region,” Pamela H. Patsley, MoneyGram chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
“With more than $25 billion in annual remittances, China is a critical focus for MoneyGram’s market expansion in 2010,” Patsley said.
The liberalization of China’s economy in the past decade has led millions of Chinese citizens to migrate away from their families in rural areas to the mega cities on the nation’s coast in search of work.
MoneyGram ran a pilot program at 240 Bank of China branches in Beijing over the past six months.
For its most recently completed fiscal year, Bank of China reported more than $70 billion in revenue and nearly $16 billion in profits.
On Monday, MoneyGram announced that it had expanded its services to Hungary. The company now has a presence in 11 cities in the country.
MoneyGram is one of Minnesota’s 40 largest public companies based on 2008 revenue, which totaled $927 million.
