Western Union Releases 2020 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report
June 22 2021 - 6:00AM
Business Wire
Third Annual ESG Report Details Company’s Focus
on Furthering Economic Prosperity, Promoting the Integrity of
Global Money Movement, and Advancing Diversity Equity and Inclusion
(DEI)
The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a global leader in
cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, today
released its 2020 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
Report, spotlighting the company’s commitment to its stakeholders
through an evolved ESG strategy and actions aligned to its key ESG
priorities.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210622005354/en/
2020 Environmental, Social &
Governance Report (Graphic: Business Wire)
“2020 reinforced the importance of collective action to address
global challenges,” said Hikmet Ersek, Western Union’s President
and CEO. “Following a year in which borders were sealed and
economies struggled, we emerged with an even sharper focus on our
role as a connector of people and businesses globally. Our ESG
efforts are closely aligned to this view of our business, and our
belief that we have a critical role to play in creating solutions
and building collaborations worldwide to advance shared ESG
priorities.”
2020 ESG Highlights
The report outlines the company’s efforts to connect people and
businesses globally, foster an inclusive workplace, move money with
integrity, uphold strong governance, safeguard our shared
environment, and provide training, education and crisis relief
through the Western Union Foundation. Key accomplishments in these
areas included:
- Cross-border money movement: Enabling nearly 150 million
customers in more than 200 countries and territories to send and
receive funds in more than 130 currencies, to and from almost
anywhere, as the global pandemic raged.
- Support for migrants: Continuing to support migrant,
refugee and other vulnerable populations through monetary and other
support to organizations focused on these groups, raising awareness
and funding critical research.
- Fraud prevention: Preventing $1.4 billion of fraudulent
transactions, with the lowest annual dollar-value payout reported
as fraud since Western Union began tracking consumer fraud claims
in 2005.
- Board diversity: Actively ensuring diversity at Board
level - as of 2020, 45% of the company’s 11 Board members were
female and/or identified as Latinx, Asian or LGBTQ+.
- Human rights: Identifying and prioritizing the company’s
human rights impacts, and releasing a Human Rights Statement guided
by internationally recognized standards.
- Western Union Foundation: Enabling the Western Union
Foundation to reach more than 200,000 people through workforce
skilling and support for resilience in crises.
Western Union’s ESG Strategy and Goals
In 2020, Western Union completed a refreshed materiality
assessment to further shape its ESG strategy and priorities. This
process identified 21 ESG topics to be integrated into Western
Union’s ESG efforts, prioritizing three topics of greatest
importance to its business and stakeholders: furthering economic
prosperity around the world; promoting the integrity of global
money movement; and advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion
(DEI).
The company also set forth the following goals to continue
advancing its ESG priorities:
- Maintain gender pay equity globally and racial/ethnic pay
equity in the U.S.
- Increase gender diversity in leadership, achieving at least 40%
women in senior management positions by 2025.
- Increase racial and ethnic diversity among employees, including
reaching at least 25% Latinx and Black employees in the U.S. by
2025.
- Conduct more than 300,000 partner engagements, such as
compliance program reviews or trainings, with Western Union
partners globally to continue building capacity within the
financial system to detect and prevent illicit activity, by
2025.
- Reach approximately 300 million consumers and clients to
promote fraud awareness and education by 2025.
The Western Union 2020 ESG report and executive summary are
available for download at https://corporate.westernunion.com/esg/.
It is prepared in accordance with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
standards, and includes responses to select relevant metrics from
the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Standards. The
report also details Western Union’s actions to advance the United
Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
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 that involve risks and uncertainties.
These statements are not historical facts or guarantees of future
outcomes, but rather are based on current expectations, estimates,
assumptions, and projections, and include statements regarding our
goals, commitments, programs, and other plans and objectives. Words
such as “expects,” “intends,” “targets,” “goals,” “anticipates,”
“believes,” “estimates,” “aims,” “plans,” “strives,” 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. Our actual outcomes and
results may differ materially from those expressed in, or implied
by, our forward-looking statements based on changes in
circumstances, assumptions not being realized, or other risks,
uncertainties, and factors. Such risks, uncertainties, and factors
include, but are not limited to, those discussed in the Risk
Factors section throughout our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2020 and subsequent Quarterly Reports on
Form 10-Q and Current Reports filed on Form 8-K with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, we cannot assure
you that outcomes or results, including the achievement of any
stated goals or targets, will have the forecasted, desired, or
expected consequences and effects. Our forward-looking statements
are only as of the date they are made, and we undertake no
obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
About Western Union
The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a global leader in
cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments. Western
Union’s platform provides seamless cross-border flows and its
leading global financial network bridges more than 200 countries
and territories and over 130 currencies. We connect businesses,
financial institutions, governments, and consumers through one of
the world’s widest reaching networks, accessing billions of bank
accounts, millions of digital wallets, and cards, and over half a
million retail locations. Western Union connects the world to bring
boundless possibilities within reach. For more information, visit
www.westernunion.com.
WU-G
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210622005354/en/
Western Union Investor Relations: Brad Windbigler:
brad.windbigler@westernunion.com
Western Union Global Communications: Claire Treacy:
Claire.treacy@westernunion.com
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