The cross-border education payment services platform EasyTransfer is forming a partnership with the Indian payments and banking solutions company Cashfree Payments to create a platform for Indian students to make international payments to universities and educational institutions abroad.
The platform is expected to be fully operational by the end of this month, and will reportedly accommodate customised features for Indian international students and their families.
EasyTransfer has already achieved success in China, being utilised by around 280,000 China-based students and their families, producing an annual transaction volume that’s set to reach the $3.5billion mark in 2022.
To complete all their education payments, compliance paperwork and progress tracking, student families receive guidance from the service’s locally based payment professionals who have native fluency in Mandarin and other regional dialects.
Now, EasyTransfer plans to replicate the payment features and services in India, where there has been a significant upsurge in students pursuing their education overseas.
As an example of this, the UK specifically has experienced a 190 per cent increase in the number of first-year international students from India between 2018 and 2020; according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
“Traditionally, students are required to visit educational and banking institutions in person to submit their relevant documents and send money overseas. EasyTransfer and Cashfree Payments have streamlined India’s liberalised remittance scheme (LRS) declaration process, allowing payments to be completed fully online,” shares Tony Gao, co-founder and president of EasyTransfer.
“Our online know-your-customer (KYC) system for payers also helps to quickly and easily validate resident credentials, a crucial and often cumbersome requirement in India.”
With a network of over 60 major Indian commercial banking partners, Cashfree Payments will simplify the payments process for the Indian student market.
Its core payments and banking infrastructure has been built in conjunction with the likes of ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Yes Bank.
Its network will enable the users of its new partner to enjoy a smoother online payment experience with faster payment processing times and fully compliant cross-border transfers.
With EasyTransfer and Cashfree Payments’ partnership, Indian students will now be able to make educational payments directly through their existing bank accounts, eliminating the need to set up a new account specifically for making such payments.
The fund settlement goes through Cashfree Payments to authorised deal banks, and then to educational institutions outside of India – ensuring a more secure transaction than conventional payment methods.
“Partnering with EasyTransfer enables us to more easily extend our payment solutions directly to Indian students, facilitating easier, faster, more convenient, and more efficient international education payments,” said Reeju Datta, co-founder of Cashfree Payments.
“We will continue our efforts to build such effective solutions for our partners, which help to create superior customer experiences.”
This news follows the launch of EasyTransfer’s global headquarters in Singapore earlier this year; the ideal location for the company to better serve students of South and Southeast Asia regions – including India, Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong SAR – in addition to students from mainland China.
