SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU), a leader in global payment and money transfer services, today announced the launch of new WU.com transactional web site in Kuwait. With the launch of Kuwait, Western Union now has online transactional services in 41 countries, enabling consumers in those countries to send money digitally to more than 200 countries and territories.
“Western Union continues to grow its online transactional network and is one of the largest money transfer providers in terms of reach worldwide,” said Khalid Fellahi, head of Western Union Digital. “Moving forward, Western Union is on track to expand its digital services to countries across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America and the Caribbean, with an emphasis on mobile. We continue to enhance our services in our existing digital enabled markets to increase penetration primarily through enhanced services, customer relationship management, account payout offerings, and digital alliances.”
Digital-enabled money transfer remains a high growth area for the company and is expected to be the major driver of overall market growth in the coming years. In Q2 2017, WU.com transactions increased 25 percent, helping digital revenue increase 21 percent. With over $340M in WU.com money transfer revenue in 2016, Western Union is well poised to continue to meet the increasing consumer demand and extend its reach.
This digital ramp-up follows the recent launches of Apple Pay as a funding method for digital users in the U.S., and Western Union’s money transfer bot for Messenger, which enables users in the U.S. to make international money transfers without leaving the Messenger app. The company also announced a deal with BP to allow customers in Australia to send money overseas at 302 BP gas stations using digital kiosks. The alliance also lets users set up transactions on the Western Union app and pay a gas station attendant in cash.
(*) WU.com is live in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Australia, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates.
For more information on Western Union’s global retail and digital1 capabilities, including mobile applications and mobile money transfer services, please visit www.WesternUnion.com.
1 Digital refers to WU.com and mobile money transfer channels
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 June 30, 2017, the Western Union, Vigo and Orlandi Valuta branded services were offered through a combined network of over 550,000 agent locations in 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.
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