Money transfer service Western Union has inked a deal with GSM Association (GSMA), to offer its money transfer service via mobile. Initially 35 operators including India’s Bharti Airtel will offer the service, which is expected to be launched in the second quarter of 2008. India receives large volumes of remittances from migrants. Interestingly, the denomination of the money transfer is being kept rather low - at upto $100.

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However, don’t get all excited yet - as Western Union CEO and President Christina Gold says here, the GSMA deal is a long term one, and dependent on mobile operators putting m-wallets in mobile phones. It’ll take time to get traction. In India, Airtel has tied up with State Bank of India (SBI) for the project, and it’s not clear whether Vodafone-Essar is among the operators. Globally, Voda has a tie-up with Citigroup for money transfer.