Kenya’s largest subscribed bank, Equity Bank has launched Equity Direct, a money remittance service in partnership with VFX Financial in the UK.

“We are delighted to deliver such a convenient and transparent low cost remittance solution, which results in more money arriving to Kenya from the UK faster and easily” said Nick England, chief executive officer of VFX.

“The uptake of Equity Direct during the pilot phase has been very high. UK residents have been able to remit millions of shillings in the last three months of piloting. We therefore are positive this is what the market has been waiting for. A low cost remittance solution,” said England.

The service, however; only allows remittance from the UK and not vice versa.

According to Equity Bank the service would be one of the cheapest in the region and even assist Kenyan exporters to the UK to get paid.

“Equity Bank is a key player in facilitating remittance to Kenya. We want our customers in and out of the country to have the different options of remittance that is most convenient to them,” said Dr. James Mwangi, Group chief executive officer at Equity Bank.

Equity Bank boasts of 8.4 million bank accounts (50% of Kenyan bank accounts) with presence in East African nations.