State company Romanian Post launches money wire service

The state-owned Romanian Post has launched the MoneyPost service for foreign currency transfer which can be used for wiring up to EUR 5,000. The payment is made to the receiver within an hour. It is only available in the Post offices which are connected to the company's VPN - virtual private network.

The service allows only for the transfer of cash between individuals, Romanians or foreigners. The new service will compete with Western Union and MoneyGram, both available in Romania. The state-owned Romanian Post managed to become profitable in August this year for the first time since 2008. Its August profit was of around EUR 140,000. This was due to expense optimization and a more efficient activity, especially on services from third parties. The Romanian Post has reduced its expense by EUR 414 million by canceling and suspending unsustainable contracts, according to the company. The company plans to grow the profit. However, for the full 2010, the Romanian Post still predicts a loss, while still growing its turnover compared to 2010. The first six months of the year brought a higher loss than the first half of 2010 – of around EUR 8 million. Its turnover in the first half of this year was of around EUR 150 million, down 8 percent on the same period of 2010. editor@romania-insider.com