Western Union opens 500,000th agent location

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a leader in global payment services, Monday announced that it has opened its 500,000th agent location and gave thanks to Filipino customers around the world for their custom, which has contributed to the rapid international growth of the company’s network.   At an event in New York, the location of the 500,000th location, the company announced a $500,000 commitment to fund economic development and entrepreneurship programs in the Philippines, China, India, Mexico and New York City over a five-year period.   Attending the Western Union event was the Hon. Mario Lopez de Leon, Jr., Consul General of the Philippines in New York, together with diplomats from China, India and Mexico and New York City officials.   In the Philippines, the company marked the milestone by decorating the flagship store of its Agent Petnet in Manila with flags of the world representing the countries and territories where Filipinos live and send and receive money through Western Union. Last year, Western Union remittances were sent to the Philippines from 194 countries.

“For over two decades, the Filipino diaspora has relied on Western Union as a financial connection between people abroad and their family and friends back home. As one of Western Union’s top markets, the Philippines is an important reason we have reached our 500,000^th location milestone,” said Patricia Riingen, Western Union’s Senior Vice President, Pacific and Indochina.   “We are very grateful for the trust that Filipinos have placed in us and will continue to work hard to serve our Pinoy compatriots even better in the coming decades,” she said.   Western Union’s 500,000th location is Freedom News in New York City. The business is owned by Deepak Patel from India, who migrated to the United States in 1986 in pursuit of a better life. Having worked late nights, sometimes 24-hour shifts across newsstands in the New York City subway system, today Deepak is living his dream, owning multiple retail stores in New York.   Western Union is currently expanding its portfolio of financial services. The network spans more than 200 countries and territories, and is a centerpiece of Western Union’s strategy to provide mainstream financial services–cash, card or digitally-based–to underserved consumers and businesses globally.   Hikmet Ersek, President and CEO Western Union said, “Western Union is changing quickly. Building on our strong global fundamentals–our brand, agent network and regulatory expertise–we are creating a more dynamic organization and product set focused on the underserved market–economically viable consumers and businesses whose financial services needs are not being met fully by other segments of the industry.”   “Our vision is to establish one million Western Union touch points–in every corner of the globe where anyone, anywhere can send a money transfer, pay bills, obtain and reload a prepaid card or pick up funds sent through a Western Union yellow phone or the Internet. We believe access to financial services is not a luxury, it’s a necessity,” concluded Ersek.    Remittances contribute to economic stability around the world, by serving as a critical source of foreign capital in many countries. Western Union is a leader in this $416 billion annual cross-border flow1of resources, completing 226 million consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, moving $81 billion of principal between consumers, and completing 425 million business payments in 2011.   For more than 160 years, the familiar signs of Western Union have stood as a trusted symbol for connecting friends, family and businesses around the world. Western Union was founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company. The company changed its name to Western Union in 1856 to mark the consolidation of several telegraph lines in what was then the Western-most reaches of the American telegraph system. Western Union first introduced money transfer in 1871. —Western Union press statement