Barri Financial Group, a U.S.-based money transfer service provider, has signed a strategic partnership with TransferTo, a B2B mobile payment network, to enable real-time mobile money transfers to Tigo Money accounts in El Salvador. 

Barri said in a press release this is the first time its U.S. customers will be able to send funds to friends and family in El Salvador.

TransferTo said in the announcement the service builds upon its existing relationship with Barri, which enables the money transfer service provider to offer mobile airtime transfers to El Salvador and other countries in Latin America.

The partnership comes two months after TransferTo partnered with Millicom, the parent company of Tigo Money, to expand its Tigo Money brand in Central and South America. Tigo Money enables millions of customers to send and receive money domestically and receive money internationally. Tigo Money's customers can pay bills, use phone-to-phone services and self-top ups, and make merchant payments via Tigo Mobile Money using a smartphone app or via the Tigo Money USSD service. 

"We are excited to be expanding our relationship with Barri to help them provide their customers with fast, secure and fully compliant Mobile Money services, while furthering the reach of Mobile Money in El Salvador," Eric Barbier, CEO of TransferTo, said in a statement. "The TransferTo B2B mobile payment network enables Barri customers to transfer funds instantly to El Salvador and use them securely from the Tigo Money Account."

"This partnership will complement our already solid remittance offering to El Salvador, our second largest corridor," Alberto Laureano, Barri's CEO, said in a statement. "This service will help reduce the levels of unbanked people in the country, and it will accelerate financial inclusion in a country that greatly needs it."