Investigation related to prior resolution with U.S. DOJ regarding
matters from 2004 to 2012 period
Resolution recognizes Western Union’s significant compliance
enhancements since 2012 and its substantial contributions to law
enforcement efforts
ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Western Union Financial Services, Inc. (“WUFSI”), a subsidiary of The
Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), today announced that it has agreed to
a consent order with the New York Department of Financial Services
(NYDFS). This agreement resolves a previously disclosed investigation by
NYDFS into facts set forth in The Western Union Company’s January 2017
deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the U.S. Department of
Justice, in which the Company acknowledged deficiencies in its
compliance programs during the 2004 to 2012 period.
Under the terms of the consent order, WUFSI will pay a total of $60
million to NYDFS to resolve violations of New York law arising out of
the facts set forth in the DPA. The Western Union Company previously
accrued $49 million towards resolution of this matter.
In the consent order, NYDFS specifically acknowledges that since 2012,
“Western Union has undertaken significant remedial measures, and
implemented compliance enhancements, to improve its anti-fraud and
anti-money laundering programs” and that “Western Union has made and
continues to make substantial contributions to law enforcement efforts
through its continuing cooperation with law enforcement authorities in
New York and elsewhere.”
Similarly, the U.S. Department of Justice stated in the DPA that Western
Union’s compliance improvements and enhancements since 2012 were “taken
at the direction of the Chief Executive Officer, the General Counsel,
and the Chief Compliance Officer and reflect their ongoing commitment to
enhancing compliance policies and procedures.”
Western Union said: “We share the New York Department of Financial
Services’ goal of protecting consumers and the integrity of our global
money transfer network. We have acknowledged that certain conduct in the
2004 to 2012 period fell short of that goal, but we have made
substantial improvements since then as part of our commitment to
continually enhance our compliance programs.”
Over the past six years, Western Union increased overall compliance
funding by more than 200 percent, and now spends approximately $200
million per year on compliance, with more than 20 percent of its
workforce currently dedicated to compliance functions. The comprehensive
improvements undertaken by the Company have added more employees with
law enforcement and regulatory expertise, strengthened its consumer
education and agent training, bolstered its technology-driven controls
and changed its governance structure. Over the last six years, the
dollar value of reported fraud in consumer-to-consumer transactions,
compared with the total value of all such transactions, has dropped more
than 60 percent.
About Western Union
The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a leader in global payment
services. Individuals and families around the world count on Western
Union to reliably and efficiently transfer billions of dollars each year
to pay for education, purchase necessities, run businesses and/or help
relatives. These services provide an economic lifeline to many people
who lack access to the traditional financial system, and play an
important role in supporting developing economies.
As of September 30, 2017, the Western Union, Vigo and Orlandi Valuta
branded services were offered through a combined network of over 550,000
agent locations in more than 200 countries and territories and over
150,000 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.
WU-G
Safe Harbor Compliance Statement for Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain statements that are forward-looking
within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and
involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult
to predict. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from those
expressed in, or implied by, our forward-looking statements. Words such
as "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates,"
"guides," "provides guidance," "provides outlook" and other similar
expressions or future or conditional verbs such as "may," "will,"
"should," "would," "could," and "might" are intended to identify such
forward-looking statements. Readers of this press release of The Western
Union Company (the "Company," "Western Union," "we," "our" or "us")
should not rely solely on the forward-looking statements and should
consider all uncertainties and risks discussed in the "Risk Factors"
section and throughout the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 2015. The statements are only as of the date they are made,
and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking
statement.
Possible events or factors that could cause results or performance to
differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements
include the following: (i) events related to our business and industry,
such as: changes in general economic conditions and economic conditions
in the regions and industries in which we operate, including global
economic and trade downturns, or significantly slower growth or declines
in the money transfer, payment service, and other markets in which we
operate, including downturns or declines related to interruptions in
migration patterns, or non-performance by our banks, lenders, insurers,
or other financial services providers; failure to compete effectively in
the money transfer and payment service industry, including among other
things, with respect to price, with global and niche or corridor money
transfer providers, banks and other money transfer and payment service
providers, including electronic, mobile and Internet-based services,
card associations, and card-based payment providers, and with digital
currencies and related protocols, and other innovations in technology
and business models; deterioration in customer confidence in our
business, or in money transfer and payment service providers generally;
our ability to adopt new technology and develop and gain market
acceptance of new and enhanced services in response to changing industry
and consumer needs or trends; changes in, and failure to manage
effectively, exposure to foreign exchange rates, including the impact of
the regulation of foreign exchange spreads on money transfers and
payment transactions; any material breach of security, including
cybersecurity, or safeguards of or interruptions in any of our systems
or those of our vendors or other third parties; cessation of or defects
in various services provided to us by third-party vendors; mergers,
acquisitions and integration of acquired businesses and technologies
into our Company, and the failure to realize anticipated financial
benefits from these acquisitions, and events requiring us to write down
our goodwill; political conditions and related actions in the United
States and abroad which may adversely affect our business and economic
conditions as a whole, including interruptions of United States or other
government relations with countries in which we have or are implementing
significant business relationships with agents or clients; failure to
manage credit and fraud risks presented by our agents, clients and
consumers; failure to maintain our agent network and business
relationships under terms consistent with or more advantageous to us
than those currently in place, including due to increased costs or loss
of business as a result of increased compliance requirements or
difficulty for us, our agents or their subagents in establishing or
maintaining relationships with banks needed to conduct our services;
decisions to change our business mix; changes in tax laws, or their
interpretation, and unfavorable resolution of tax contingencies; adverse
rating actions by credit rating agencies; our ability to realize the
anticipated benefits from productivity and cost-savings and other
related initiatives, which may include decisions to downsize or to
transition operating activities from one location to another, and to
minimize any disruptions in our workforce that may result from those
initiatives; our ability to protect our brands and our other
intellectual property rights and to defend ourselves against potential
intellectual property infringement claims; our ability to attract and
retain qualified key employees and to manage our workforce successfully;
material changes in the market value or liquidity of securities that we
hold; restrictions imposed by our debt obligations; (ii) events related
to our regulatory and litigation environment, such as: liabilities or
loss of business resulting from a failure by us, our agents or their
subagents to comply with laws and regulations and regulatory or judicial
interpretations thereof, including laws and regulations designed to
protect consumers, or detect and prevent money laundering, terrorist
financing, fraud and other illicit activity; increased costs or loss of
business due to regulatory initiatives and changes in laws, regulations
and industry practices and standards, including changes in
interpretations in the United States and globally, affecting us, our
agents or their subagents, or the banks with which we or our agents
maintain bank accounts needed to provide our services, including related
to anti-money laundering regulations, anti-fraud measures, customer due
diligence, agent and subagent due diligence, registration and monitoring
requirements, and consumer protection requirements; liabilities or loss
of business and unanticipated developments resulting from governmental
investigations and consent agreements with or enforcement actions by
regulators, including those associated with compliance with or failure
to comply with the settlement agreement with the State of Arizona, as
amended; the potential impact on our business from the Dodd-Frank Wall
Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”), as
well as regulations issued pursuant to it and the actions of the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and similar legislation and
regulations enacted by other governmental authorities related to
consumer protection; liabilities resulting from litigation, including
class-action lawsuits and similar matters, including costs, expenses,
settlements and judgments; failure to comply with regulations and
evolving industry standards regarding consumer privacy and data use and
security; effects of unclaimed property laws; failure to maintain
sufficient amounts or types of regulatory capital or other restrictions
on the use of our working capital to meet the changing requirements of
our regulators worldwide; changes in accounting standards, rules and
interpretations or industry standards affecting our business; and (iii)
other events, such as: adverse tax consequences from our spin-off from
First Data Corporation; catastrophic events; and management's ability to
identify and manage these and other risks.

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Source: The Western Union Company