Western Union Wins FinTech Breakthrough Award for “Consumer Payments Innovation”

Recognized for outstanding financial technology enabling financial institutions with seamless cross-border, cross-currency money movement

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, today was named winner of the “Consumer Payments Innovation Award” in the fifth annual FinTech Breakthrough Awards for 2021. The company’s innovative cross-border money transfer solution was awarded for its ‘plug and play’ technology used by a growing number of financial institutions to offer seamless, convenient, reliable, and fast international money transfer capabilities for their customers, connecting them to more than 200 countries and territories and over 130 currencies.

Western Union’s White Label Digital Partner technology solution enables FIs to use their existing branded customer technological interface to provide international money transfer services. FI’s customers can fund the transfers drawing from their linked bank accounts, wallets, or cards and choose to pay their receivers through the world’s widest-reaching networks, operated by Western Union, accessing billions of bank accounts, millions of digital wallets, and cards, and over half a million retail locations.

The FinTech Breakthrough Awards is the premier awards program founded to recognize the FinTech innovators, leaders, and visionaries worldwide in various categories, including Digital Banking, Personal Finance, Lending, Payments, Investments, RegTech, InsurTech, and many more. The 2021 FinTech Breakthrough Award program attracted more than 3,850 nominations from across the world.

“Western Union continues to deliver stellar customer experiences for consumers and businesses, moving money around the world every day, simplifying international money transfer complexities, including compliance, regulatory control, and settlement in over 130 currencies. Western Union has taken decades of innovation in serving its own branded customers and is now offering this functionality in a breakthrough white-label arrangement, driving even more cross-border connections for the wider financial sector,” said James Johnson, Managing Director, FinTech Breakthrough.

FinTech Breakthrough Awards perform the most in-depth evaluation of the sector to recognize the creativity, hard work, and success of innovative FinTech companies, technologies, and products worldwide.

“We are thrilled with the 2021 FinTech Breakthrough Award win and are honored with the recognition for our innovative cross-border money movement ‘plug and play’ capability, offered white label or branded as a part of our Digital Partner technology solution,” said Western Union President of Global Network, Jean Claude Farah.

Farah continued, “FI customers can initiate transactions from their bank website or mobile app and send directly to beneficiaries’ bank accounts, mobile wallets, cards, or for in-person cash pickup throughout Western Union’s leading global financial network bridging more than 200 countries and territories and over 130 currencies. With our Western Union Digital Partner technology solution, FIs can count on us to handle the cross-border payout of transactions seamlessly, in minutes, at scale, and in compliance with national and international regulations.”

The opening of Western Union’s cross-border platform and global financial network to third parties marks a strategic step to evolve Western Union to a diversified payments company, accessing adjacent cross-border money movement segments, and adding incremental customers.

FIs and the customers they serve no longer need to be confined to expensive, unpredictable, traditional cross-border payment channels. Western Union’s solution keeps the customer experience firmly in the hands of the FI - from the user interface to branding to pricing - while Western Union takes care of the complexities of the cross-border payout to the beneficiary. Additionally, Western Union’s robust compliance and risk ecosystem supports partners with sanctions and interdiction screening, and real-time risk assessment to detect and prevent fraud while also meeting local regulatory requirements for payouts.

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.

About FinTech Breakthrough
Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for technology innovation and leadership around the globe, the FinTech Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in Financial Technologies and Services companies and products. The FinTech Breakthrough Awards provide public recognition for the achievements of FinTech companies and products in categories including Payments, Personal Finance, Wealth Management, Fraud Protection, Banking, Lending, RegTech, InsurTech, and more. For more information, visit FinTechBreakthrough.com.

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