Western Union has continued the expansion of its global network for real-time money-movement and payments.
The move seeks to grow the company’s consumers and clients across its branded money transfer and payments business as well as its expanding white-label firm.
The expansion has been fast-tracked since the beginning of this year with the goal of assessing as many as 100 countries for real-time capabilities by the end of 2020. Western Union’s global network now includes more than four billion bank accounts and wallets.
Western Union President and CEO Hikmet Ersek commented: “Western Union is continuing to execute on its strategy by investing in and growing our global network to empower businesses and consumers to move money or make payments how they choose, to where they choose, as quickly as possible. The COVID-19 crisis has strengthened our commitment to be a reliable partner for people and enterprises to move funds globally in real-time.”
He added: “This is a prime example of how the expanding global reach, interconnectedness and speed of Western Union’s global network generates customer benefits that are difficult to match. Our unique platform cuts through international complexities so customers can access their funds in real-time in more and more places.
“As we expand from our roots in consumer remittances, we’re positioning ourselves as the platform of choice for next-generation payments businesses and financial institutions and their diverse cross-border payments needs.”
The importance of the expansion and Western Union’s cross payment capabilities comes at a crucial time as the world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the crisis, Western Union has focused on accelerating the expansion of its digital money transfer capabilities so more consumers and businesses can make essential cross-border payments and transfers from the safety of their homes.
Moreover, the company offers banks and other payment providers a portfolio of application programming interfaces (APIs) to integrate with its cross-border, cross-current money movement platform with the added benefit of Western Union’s treasury management, reconciliation, and global compliance capabilities.
