Coinstar Inc. has expanded its money transfer services into Poland through a deal with Pocztowy Bank.
Coinstar, of Bellevue, Wash., said Wednesday that consumers can now send funds that friends or family members can receive at Pocztowy Bank's 5,400 locations in Poland.
Pocztowy Bank, of Bydgoszcz, operates the largest banking network in Poland. It is 75% owned by the country's postal service, Post of Poland, and 25% owned by PKO Polish Bank.
The U.S. company's Coinstar Money Transfer Ltd. unit said that $11 billion was sent to people in Poland in 2008, making it one of the top five remittance destinations in the world.
Coinstar is best known for its green coin-counting machines, but it has been steadily moving into remittance services since its June 2006 purchase of Travelex Money Transfer Ltd., a U.K. company that served Europe, Asia and Africa. In January 2008 Coinstar acquired GroupEx Financial Corp., a remittance provider with extensive operations in Latin America.
Not including the agreement in Poland, Coinstar's remittance services are available at 23,000 locations in 143 countries.
Coinstar has said that its eventual goal is to automate the remittance process, enabling consumers to initiate payments through self-serve kiosks.
Coinstar's remittance rival MoneyGram Inc. already offers transfers through Cardtronics Inc.'s Vcom kiosks that are installed at some 7-Eleven Inc. stores.
