Singapore / Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, 01 June 2023 – Global cross-border payment infrastructure company Thunes and Rawbank, the leading bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), today announced a partnership to facilitate cross-border transaction flows between the DRC and the rest of the world through illicocash. By partnering with Thunes, Rawbank now becomes the first financial institution in the DRC to enable outbound and inbound cross-border mobile money transfers via its illicocash mobile wallet.
“Given the DRC’s heavily underbanked population and high mobile penetration rate, this new service is a crucial development,” said Rawbank Fintech Director Karim Nouri. “High fees, slow speeds and unreliability often plague existing cross-border mobile money transfer methods in the DRC. Now, a family in Kinshasa will be able to easily send funds in real time to their child studying overseas through the illicocash mobile wallet, and the student can receive his funds instantly.”
The integration with illicocash also enables Thunes’ network partners to pay seamlessly into the DRC, thus adding a new direct connection to a previously hard-to-reach market. Customers of Thunes’ network partners worldwide can now move money instantly and securely to their beneficiaries in the DRC via the illicocash mobile wallet, with upfront transparency on cost and confirmation of arrival.
“Being the first institution to enable inbound and outbound mobile transactions through illicocash is an important milestone for us,” Nouri said. “Many Congolese living, working or studying overseas rely on funds from loved ones back home, and we are delighted that Thunes is powering this service for us. We look forward to expanding our solutions through Thunes’ global network and connecting our users to the world.”
Additionally, Rawbank plans to launch new services for its corporate customers to facilitate international business payments later in the year by leveraging Thunes’ network. The value of imports of goods and services in the DRC has doubled in the past 10 years, according to the World Bank; improving the payment of trade invoices is a key push for Rawbank.
“Our partnership with Rawbank powers the first mobile wallet in the DRC to send and receive funds globally, marking a significant milestone for beneficiaries who rely on such money transfer services to finance their daily lives. We are pleased to take yet another step towards our long-term objective of improving access to the world’s fastest-growing economies,” said Sandra Yao, Thunes Senior Vice President (Africa).
About Thunes
Founded in 2016, Thunes is a B2B company that powers payments for the world’s fastest-growing businesses – from Gig Economy giants such as Uber and Deliveroo and Southeast Asia’s super-app Grab to global Fintech leaders such as PayPal and Remitly. Through a single, simple connection, consumers and businesses can send payments to – and get paid in – every corner of the world. Thunes currently supports 79 currencies, enables payments to 130 countries, and helps to accept 300 payment methods. In April 2022, Thunes acquired a controlling stake in a leading AML and Compliance Platform company Tookitaki, which now enables the company’s advanced compliance, anti-fraud, and anti-money laundering (AML) capabilities, setting an international benchmark for sustainable compliance. The company is headquartered in Singapore, with regional offices in London, Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong, New York, Dubai, Nairobi, and Barcelona.
For more information, visit www.thunes.com
Media contact: press@thunes.com
About Rawbank
For 20 years, Rawbank has been supporting the development of the Congolese economy. Rawbank offers the most modern products and services to its 500,000+ corporate, SME and individual customers through a network of 100 sales outlets in 19 provinces of the country, including Equateur, Central Kongo, Greater Katanga, Greater Kasai and the two Kivus. In addition to this vast network of branches, there is a representative office in Brussels and 250 ATMs. With more than 1 800 employees, Rawbank has a market share of over 30%.
Rawbank’s work has been rewarded with the African Bankers Award 2022 for the best regional bank in Central Africa, a Moody’s CAA 1 rating, ISO/IEC 20000 and ISO/IEC 27001 certifications.
Partners who trust RAWBANK include : AfDB, AGF, BADEA, the IFC, Shelter Africa and TDB.
For more information, visit: www.rawbank.com
About illicocash
Illicocash is a digital wallet that enables a seamless, cashless and branchless way to pay. Illicocash is the e-wallet customers can rely on for all their financial transactions, including making payments, online purchases, local and international transfers, mobile top-ups, Pay TV, donations, virtual prepaid cards and much more. Today, Rawbank serves approximately 500,000 active customers, and the number of active user accounts on illicocash totals 300,000.
For more information, visit: www.illicocash.com
Media contact: marketing@illicocash.com