The largest lender of the country, State Bank of India and Western Union are going to enter into an agreement whereby customers of SBI will be able to receive cross-border money transfers in their bank accounts through their mobile phones.

Western Union announced the launch of its account-based money transfer (ABMT) service in 2011 in July this year. Through this service, SBI users will be able to conduct Western Union Transactions using the internet only.

"India is a key market for Western Union," the company's Managing Director for south and south-east Asia, Anil Kapur, said.

"Western Union has more than 61,000 agent locations in India. As we continue to expand our network, this collaboration with SBI realises our commitment to provide our consumers with the greater convenience of accessing money sent by their families and loved ones from overseas," he said.

Western Union's Regional Vice-President for India, Kiran Shetty, said that "by leveraging our global `hub' for moving money, we are able to continually offer new and innovative choices for SBI customers to transfer their money from Western Union directly into their accounts through mobile phones."