Western Union Teams With UK’s Post Office To Digitize Global Payments

Western Union has announced a collaboration with the United Kingdom’s Post Office Ltd. to offer U.K. consumers and businesses expanded digital international payment services.

The Western Union cross-border money movement platform will power international money transfers and payments as an integrated service on Post Office’s digital channel, according to a press release.

On the branded online portal, customers can access international payment services modeled on Western Union’s global online transactional sites.

“Western Union’s international reach and scale mean we’re able to bring a new dimension to Post Office’s digital offering for individuals and businesses,” said Hikmet Ersek, president and CEO, Western Union. “This collaboration marks an expansion of our strategy to open our platform to new alliances and solve the complexities of cross-border, cross-currency transactions for companies.”

With 11,500 locations, Post Office is the largest retail network in the U.K., surpassing high street banks and building societies.

“The launch of this service is great news for our customers, and demonstrates how we’re committed to enhancing and expanding the services our customers can access through our digital channel,” said Owen Woodley, CEO of financial services and telecoms at Post Office.

Customers will have the capability to transfer money online to bank accounts, mobile wallets and retail agent locations in more than 200 countries and territories.

In other news, Visa has entered into a strategic partnership with Western Union to expedite the movement of money globally – and digitally – across a range of use cases. Western Union will leverage Visa Direct, the card giant’s real-time push payments platform, to offer global consumers and businesses expedited push-to-card transfers.

Dollar General has also signed on with Western Union. The alliance enables customers to initiate international and domestic money transfers digitally through the Western Union mobile app or website and then pay in person at Dollar General stores.

Also, Western Union recently expanded its services into Thailand and launched a brand-new international money transfer service in the region. Customers in Thailand can pay out into billions of bank accounts around the world and in almost 100 countries and territories, or to the company’s 500,000+ agent locations in 200 countries and territories.