Some consumers in Maldives have complained of Western Union suspending money transfers. Mohamed Ibrahim, the Assistant Manager of the local Western Union Branch has cleared the situation. According to him the temporary suspension of their money order services was caused by the lack of US dollar in the local banks.
The local Miadhu News reports that the agency had faced difficulties in getting US dollars previously but was able to manage, purchasing the Dollar from various local banks. But nevertheless the agency had to suspend its operations this September when the US dollar became unavailable. According to Mohamed Ibrahim their service was dependent on the banks as the funds sent exceeded funds received by approximately 90%. He stated that the agency was working on resuming operations but said that it was difficult to say when they would do so.
Bank statistics shows that Western Union service is popular in the country and serves about 500-800 clients a day. The agency can still receive transfers and continues to issue funds despite their inability to transfer money out of the country.
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