NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

An old-line American cash-based money transfer operator is expanding its channel offerings and embracing mobile in a big way. Western Union, the Englewood, Colo.-based company that was founded in 1851, has recently made rapid progress in signing up mobile money service partners around the world and now has 20 mobile money deployments in 18 countries, allowing consumers to send and receive cross-border remittances on cellphones.And the company has several mobile deployments awaiting contract signatures, according to Nick LeCuyer, vice president of strategic planning at Western Union Digital, the firm’s digital channels division.

An analyst blog by Zacks Investment Research noted the company’s aggressive moves. “Western Union is intent to grow its mobile payment channel of business … since it foresees tremendous growth in this line of money transfer service,” Zacks.com said.