Western Union CEO Hikmet Ersek Discusses Migration and University of Colorado Boulder Research Findings during World Economic Forum Annual Meeting

DAVOS, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The University of Colorado Boulder Leeds School of Business, which includes the well-regarded Business Research Division, and The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU), a leader in global payment services, today announced the release of a first-of-its-kind study that sheds new light on the positive impact of cross-border money transfer broadly and of Western Union services in particular.

“Development experts have long debated the impact of the cross-border person-to-person flow of funds. Although there is widespread consensus that remittances help alleviate poverty among recipients, questions remain about whether they promote overall economic growth,” said Dr. Miles Light, a development economist at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Business Research Division, who led the research. “We find that the benefits related to remittances are larger than the costs, and this study is distinctive in that we quantify multiple effects.”

The study looked at money transfers worldwide, and focused on the Philippines, one of the top three recipient nations of official remittances¹, to create a model that could be used to construct equivalent indicators for other countries. “Past scholarship often has been limited to broadly-available data, while this research pinpoints the impact of individual players in the cross-border money transfer market,” Dr. Light said.

“We saw an opportunity to help advance understanding in the field as part of our broader commitment to leadership in business and corporate responsibility,” said Hikmet Ersek, President and CEO, Western Union. “New insight is critical to creating effective programs around this $542B annual global flow of funds, and to the one in seven people globally² who make up the mobile workforce.”

The study demonstrates that Western Union services have a positive impact on society over the long term. Dr. Light’s preliminary findings include:

Employment

• Each Western Union Agent location in the Philippines handles transactions that infuse enough funds into the local economy to create 85 non-Western Union jobs.
• When combined, the impact of these funds handled by Western Union Agent locations account for 722,500 jobs in the Philippines.

Incomes

• Among lower-income households, on average, WU money transfers grow nominal income by 14.5%, and welfare by 13.1%
• WU money transfers also have price and secondary income effects that benefit middle-to-high income households that do not receive money transfers. On average, this population sees 0.4% growth in nominal income and 0.3% growth in welfare, driven by remittances.

Wage Impacts

Remittance recipients tend to work less, presumably to attend school or better support children or elderly relatives. This reduces the labor supply, causing upward pressure on wages of those who do not receive remittances. Labor supply for household income deciles 2-6 decline by 4.8%, on average, resulting in market wages increases, as follows:

The full preliminary report is available here: www.colorado.edu/leeds/western-union.

For more on Hikmet Ersek’s panel participation at the World Economic Forum, visit: www.weforum.org/sessions/summary/escaping-poverty.

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 September 30, 2014, the Western Union, Vigo and Orlandi Valuta branded services were offered through a combined network of over 500,000 agent locations in 200 countries and territories and over 100,000 ATMs and kiosks. In 2013, The Western Union Company completed 242 million consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, moving $82 billion of principal between consumers, and 459 million business payments. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.

¹ Source: World Development Indicators and World Bank Development Prospects Group

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Source: The Western Union Company