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Western Union (WU) Boosts Money Transfer Services in South Korea

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The Western Union Company (WU - Free Report) recently partnered with Korea’s well-established fintech company Travel Wallet to offer enhanced money transfer services for the Travel Wallet App users in South Korea.

The tie-up entails WU’s money transfer services being introduced on the Travel Wallet App, which is available to both android and iOS users. This will enable the app users to send money via Western Union. Local bank accounts can also be utilized by the customers for making cross-border money transfers.

The funds being sent will be dispensed via cash or bank account payouts — a facility that is available in specific countries. There are promising plans to expand the payout reach by leveraging the scope and reach of the worldwide payout network of Western Union.

In the days ahead, Travel Wallet users will be equipped to receive Western Union money transfers via the app. The money sent has to be conducted through the digital money transfer services or worldwide retail Agent network of Western Union.

Initiatives similar to the latest one highlight Western Union’s sincere efforts to strengthen its capabilities and presence across South Korea. Travel Wallet seems to be the apt partner for complementing WU’s endeavor since it shares a common goal of offering cutting-edge remittance and cross-border payment services for boosting the connectivity of customers with their loved ones globally.

Western Union has been pursuing partnerships similar to the latest one throughout the last year. This is evident from its partnerships with Suhyup Bank and  Korea Investment & Securities, which were aimed at offering enhanced money transfer services in South Korea. The country seems to be an attractive market for Western Union, considering the widespread digital penetration and rising number of Internet users. South Korea boasts of one of the world’s fastest Internet networks, and the country continually makes significant investments in innovative technologies to sustain the same.

With digital money transfers becoming integral to day-to-day lives, Western Union has been relying on technology for generating seamless and secured money transfer services worldwide. To complement its endeavor, WU built a solid digital arm through several digital tie-ups and substantial investments. Western Union has been entering into several collaborations with global and local financial service providers, which are aimed at bolstering digital services portfolio, facilitating enhanced management of global payments and boosting customer experience.

The credibility of WU’s money transfer services can be further substantiated by the fact that the leading technology company in the global payments industry Mastercard (MA - Free Report) , turned to Western Union for easing digital money transfers.

Similar to Western Union, other companies such as Mastercard, Visa Inc. (V - Free Report) and MoneyGram International, Inc. have resorted to creating a solid digital arm for capitalizing on the solid demand for hassle-free cross-border payments.

Mastercard has been focused on collaborating with global and regional financial service providers in a bid to upgrade the money movement process for consumers and businesses. MA has been resorting to a digital partnership strategy and undertaking significant investments to upgrade its digital capabilities. In December 2021, Mastercard partnered with ProgressSoft to smoothly integrate its cross-border platform into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions’ banks and, consequently, speed up remittances throughout the region.

Visa facilitates the seamless and secure transfer of funds on a real-time basis worldwide. For complementing its endeavor, V pursues collaborations to aid the cross-border payments industry with innovative digital solutions to replace age-old processes. Visa B2B Connect delivers innovative B2B cross-border payments and keeps on adding partners to its network.

MoneyGram has been expanding its digital money transfer business rapidly via constant partnerships and significant investments. MGI has a solid pipeline of new digital partners in place in an effort to bolster the growth prospects of this arm. As a result, MoneyGram anticipates its digital business to cross over 50% of all money transfer transactions in 2024.

Shares of Western Union have lost 10.1% in the past six months compared with the industry’s decline of 17.9%.

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WU currently has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Shares of Mastercard and MoneyGram have gained 5.1% and 18.3%, respectively, in the past six months. Meanwhile, Visa stock has lost 2.8% in the same time frame.


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