WESTERN UNION EXPANDS: International and Domestic Direct-to-Bank Money Transfers to Bank Accounts in India

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a leader in global payment services, today expanded its offering of sending international money transfers from the U.S. and U.K. directly into bank accounts in India. Western Union also launched domestic money transfers as business correspondent to Kotak Mahindra Bank enabling Indians to send money directly into bank accounts in India.

As part of the company’s international money transfer offering, consumers in the U.S. and U.K. can now send direct-to-bank transactions to banks in India online—via the company’s transactional websites and, in the U.S., via its smartphone application—or by visiting thousands of participating Agent locations. Additionally, U.S. and U.K. consumers who have a non-resident bank account in India can use Western Union to send money into these accounts.

In a ground-breaking deal with Kotak Mahindra Bank, one of India’s fastest growing private banks, Western Union as a business correspondent paved the way for participating Agent locations across India to facilitate domestic money transfers—by allowing Indians to send monies directly into banks in India during, and beyond, traditional banking hours. The service will be available from today at 500 retail locations throughout the country with significant location expansion plans by the end of the year.

Officiating at the formal announcement ceremony in Mumbai, India today, Western Union’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Hikmet Ersek said, “Our goal is to serve our consumers anytime and anywhere. To achieve this, we are pursuing a multi-product, multi-channel strategy to enable consumers to manage their finances the way they want.”

Ersek continued, “It is a phenomenal achievement for Western Union consumers to be able to send international money transfers directly into bank accounts in up to 48 countries, now including India. Thanks also to our relationship with Kotak Mahindra Bank; as a business correspondent, we have the potential to use more than half of our Agent locations to send domestic money transfers directly into India’s banking network.”

About Western Union

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a leader in global payment services. Together with its Vigo, Orlandi Valuta, Pago Facil and Western Union Business Solutions branded payment services, Western Union provides consumers and businesses with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send and receive money around the world, to send payments and to purchase money orders. As of March 31, 2013, the Western Union, Vigo and Orlandi Valuta branded services were offered through a combined network of approximately 515,000 agent locations in 200 countries and territories and approximately 100,000 ATMs. In 2012, The Western Union Company completed 231 million consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, moving $79 billion of principal between consumers, and 432 million business payments. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.

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