Launches WU Shop in Germany and Austria, with
U.S. Planned to Launch in Q4
Digital Banking Services Pilot Upcoming in
Select Countries
The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a global leader in
cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, today
announces the advancement of its consumer ecosystem strategy with
the launch of WU Shop, a shopping platform, in Germany and Austria.
Additional countries, including the U.S., are planned to go live in
the fourth quarter. Additionally, the Company is tracking toward
the launch of its digital banking pilot in Germany and Romania by
year-end.
Western Union’s position as a trusted financial services
provider with a global customer base it increasingly serves in a
digital environment, provides it with an exciting opportunity to
significantly deepen relationships with customers by offering
additional relevant products and services alongside its core money
transfer services.
The first component of this ecosystem to launch, WU Shop,
initially targets the Company’s millions of MyWU loyalty members,
enabling customers to shop directly at over 12,000 local and global
merchants in more than 60 countries and send gifts directly to
family and friends in other countries. The customer receives
exclusive benefits and cash back on their purchases in virtually
any currency, and further benefits from minimal shipping costs,
alleviating many of the challenges associated with purchasing and
sending gifts internationally to loved ones.
The Company also announced it is on track to launch its digital
banking pilot in Europe, specifically Germany and Romania, in the
fourth quarter. With the pilot, the Company will offer customers an
integrated digital banking and money transfer solution, which
includes a multi-currency account and debit card, through Western
Union International Bank, headquartered in Vienna, Austria. In
time, Western Union sees significant potential to leverage its vast
network, platform, compliance capabilities and global customer
base, to become a significant player in the rapidly expanding
global digital banking market.
“The accelerated adoption of digital and the expansion of our
WU.com customer base positions us well to build a consumer
ecosystem and drive long-term growth for the Company,” said Western
Union’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Hikmet Ersek. “We
have long been a trusted provider to our customers in meeting their
global money movement needs and this ecosystem has the potential to
allow us to leverage our global capabilities and local market
expertise to increase the value we provide them,” he concluded.
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," "targets," "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, 2020.
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 downturns
and trade disruptions, 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 other events, such as public
health emergencies, epidemics, or pandemics such as COVID-19, civil
unrest, war, terrorism, or natural disasters, 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 digital, 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; political conditions and related
actions, including trade restrictions and government sanctions, 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, clients, or other partners;
deterioration in customer confidence in our business, or in money
transfer and payment service providers generally; failure to
maintain our agent network and business relationships under terms
consistent with or more advantageous to us than those currently in
place; 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
the integration of acquired businesses and technologies into our
Company, divestitures, and the failure to realize anticipated
financial benefits from these transactions, and events requiring us
to write down our goodwill; decisions to change our business mix;
our ability to realize the anticipated benefits from
restructuring-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; failure to manage credit and fraud
risks presented by our agents, clients, and consumers; changes in
tax laws or their interpretation, any subsequent regulation, and
potential related state income tax impacts, and unfavorable
resolution of tax contingencies; adverse rating actions by credit
rating agencies; our ability to protect our trademarks, patents,
copyrights, and 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, operational burden or loss of business due to
regulatory initiatives and changes in laws, including changes in
interpretations, resulting in increasing regulations and industry
practices and standards in the United States and abroad, affecting
us, our agents, or their subagents, our external business partners
such as financial institutions, 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, our licensing arrangements, customer due diligence, agent
and subagent due diligence, registration and monitoring
requirements, consumer protection requirements, remittances, and
immigration; liabilities, increased costs or loss of business and
unanticipated developments resulting from governmental
investigations and consent agreements with or enforcement actions
by regulators; liabilities resulting from litigation, including
class-action lawsuits and similar matters, and regulatory
enforcement actions, including costs, expenses, settlements, and
judgments; failure to comply with regulations and evolving industry
standards regarding consumer privacy, data use, the transfer of
personal data between jurisdictions, and information security,
including with respect to the General Data Protection Regulation in
the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act; failure
to comply with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer
Protection 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 in the United States and abroad related to consumer
protection and derivative transactions; effects of unclaimed
property laws or their interpretation or the enforcement thereof;
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:
catastrophic events; and management’s ability to identify and
manage these and other risks.
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 more than 550,000 retail locations. Western Union
connects the world to bring boundless possibilities within reach.
For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.
WU-G
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211102005499/en/
Media contacts: Claire Treacy Global Corporate
Communications Claire.Treacy@westernunion.com Nicholas Mandalas
Europe & CIS Communications Nicholas.Mandalas@wu.com
Western Union (NYSE:WU)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Western Union (NYSE:WU)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024