Western Union Business Solutions recently announced that the payment processing company, in conjunction with local bank ICICI Bank, will now be accepting tuition payments and fees from international students in India in Indian rupees (INR) for many participating universities across Canada and the United States, according to Banking Business Review.

With the surge in Indian nationals heading abroad to North America to further their education, the ability to submit payments in their local currency will be a major asset. According to The Hindustan Times, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) recorded a 511 per cent increase in the number of students studying in Canada between 2007 and 2010. In 2011, more than 12,000 post-secondary students came over from India to attend Canadian universities.

According to Raj Agrawal, the president of Western Union Business Solutions, the new service will speed up and secure the delivery of tuition payments to universities. The collaboration will also help streamline reconciliation while providing easy access to full student reference information. This creates an easy channel for North American universities to handle payment processing transactions from abroad. The company hopes to make the service available to more foreign markets in the upcoming months.