Western Union Touts Web-Based Money Transfer

SAN FRANCISCO -- Western Union (NYSE:WU) continues to increasingly cater to the needs of web-savvy customers who want greater convenience in their financial services. To give new consumers an incentive to try its easy and reliable online money transfer service, Western Union is now offering a 'No Transfer Fee' promotion on qualifying transfers.

For a limited time, customers can now use www.WesternUnion.com to send money from the U.S. to India, Mexico and the Philippines fee-free(*) . The promotion is for people who send money online using their online bank accounts. Receivers can pick up the money at any of the more than 100,000 combined Agent locations in India, Mexico and the Philippines.

"We began transferring money via the Internet back in 2000 with the goal of reaching what we considered at the time to be non-traditional Western Union users," said Khalid Fellahi, Western Union's Senior Vice President and General Manager, Western Union Digital. "This segment continues to grow and has become a key audience for Western Union. Our strategy is to provide a complete suite of services catering to their needs. This includes the attractive bank-to-bank segment, which complements our traditional retail services."

The Western Union(c) web-based money transfer business is one of the fastest growing areas of the company; experiencing more than 35 percent revenue growth in 2011 and almost 40 percent revenue growth in first quarter 2012. The platform is attracting new customers: over the last 12 months, more than 80 percent of new online customers are new to the company's customer base, including those with established banking relationships.

The Internet is just one part of the company's broader digital strategy in which it also seeks to expand its offerings for banked customers and further into the mobile arena and prepaid cards.

Western Union Holdings Inc.