US, Canada and major parts of Europe Now Fully Digital Enabled with
Western Union® Services
ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
The
Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a leader in global payments, today
announced that it has further strengthened its global digital money
transfer footprint, with the activation of its 40th wu.com
transactional website, now providing full digital access for
cross-border person-to-person (P2P) money transfer services across major
developed nations including the US, Canada and major parts of Europe*.
Wu.com is also active in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and the
United Arab Emirates. Western Union plans to continue to expand its
digital presence across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America
and the Caribbean in the next phase of its online expansion, augmenting
the company’s retail Agent footprint in more than 200 countries and
territories.
“The continuous advancement of our digital innovation over the past
several years allows us to stay ahead of the needs of the modern money
mover, and we are serving them across a multitude of currencies,
languages and borders,” said Odilon Almeida, President of Western Union
Global Money Transfer. “Our customers want different options to send and
receive money around the globe, and our ability to bridge their digital
and physical worlds – whether it is bank-to-bank, through web, app to
cash or cash to cash – through our fast, reliable and convenient digital
and retail cross-border money transfer platform, is Western Union’s key
differentiator.”
According to the World
Bank, while more than 75 percent of cross-border P2P transfers are
sent into developing countries, people send money from nearly every
country in the world. Western Union’s digital expansion provides further
choice not only to consumers who may have migrated and are working and
living in their host countries, but also to a new generation of
consumers who live in their home countries and need to move money in an
increasingly globalized world. These consumers send money for a variety
of reasons, such as their child’s international college tuition, to
scale up their small business, to fund travel and tourism, to buy goods
and services, or for gifting purposes.
Digital-initiated money transfer remains a high growth area and is
expected to be the major driver of overall market growth in the coming
years. With over $340 million of westernunion.com money transfer revenue
in 2016, Western Union is well poised to continue to meet the increasing
consumer demand.
In Q1 2017, more than 60 percent of wu.com transactions were initiated
on a mobile device. This digital ramp-up follows the recent launches of
Apple Pay as a funding method for digital users in the U.S., and Western
Union’s money
transfer bot for Messenger, which enables users in the U.S. to make
international money transfers without leaving the Messenger app.
For more information, visit the Western Union newsroom at www.westernunion.com/news.
(*) WU.com is live in the following countries: Austria,
Belgium,
Bulgaria,
Croatia,
Cyprus,
Czech
Republic, Denmark,
Estonia,
Finland,
France,
Germany,
Greece,
Hungary,
Iceland,
Ireland,
Italy,
Latvia,
Liechtenstein,
Lithuania,
Luxembourg,
Malta,
Netherlands,
Norway,
Poland,
Portugal,
Romania,
Russia,
Slovakia,
Slovenia,
Spain,
Sweden,
Switzerland,
Ukraine,
United
Kingdom, Canada,
United
States, Australia,
New
Zealand, Hong
Kong, United
Arab Emirates.
WU-G
About Western Union
The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a leader in global payment
services. Together with its Vigo, Orlandi Valuta, Pago Facil and Western
Union Business Solutions branded payment services, Western Union
provides consumers and businesses with fast, reliable and convenient
ways to send and receive money around the world, to send payments and to
purchase money orders. As of March 31, 2017, the Western Union, Vigo and
Orlandi Valuta branded services were offered through a combined network
of over 550,000 agent locations in 200 countries and territories and
over 100,000 ATMs and kiosks, and included the capability to send money
to billions of accounts. In 2016, The Western Union Company completed
268 million consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, moving $80
billion of principal between consumers, and 523 million business
payments. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170510005465/en/
Source: The Western Union Company