Western Union Reports Third Quarter Results

Revenue of $1.3 billion; Earnings per share $0.55 GAAP, $0.57 Adjusted

Money transfer trends continue to improve with digital revenue growth of 45%

Strong profitability with operating margin of 22.7% GAAP, 23.5% Adjusted

Reissues full year 2020 financial outlook

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, today reported third quarter financial results, and provided a financial outlook for 2020.

The Company’s third quarter revenue of $1.3 billion improved substantially from the previous quarter and declined 4% compared to the prior year period, or 1% on a constant currency basis that includes a 1% benefit from inflation in Argentina. The decline in revenue reflects the continuing macro-economic impact from COVID-19, offset by improving consumer money transfer fundamentals, including digital revenue growth of 45% to a new quarterly high of over $230 million.

GAAP earnings per share in the third quarter was $0.55 compared to $0.32 in the prior year period, which included $92 million of restructuring expenses. Adjusted earnings per share was $0.57 compared to $0.49 in the prior year period, benefiting from the Company’s productivity initiatives, additional cost savings related to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a lower effective tax rate and share count, partially offset by declines in revenue.

President and CEO Hikmet Ersek said, “Our solid third quarter performance highlights the value of our services and the resiliency of our customers in providing vital support for families, communities, and businesses around the world throughout this global crisis. In addition, our strategy, planning, and execution enabled us to adjust to changing market conditions, rebound quickly from the sharp downturn COVID-19 caused during the second quarter, and deliver strong profitability for shareholders.”

Ersek added, “Although macro-economic uncertainty remains elevated, our business continues to improve. The investments in platform and digital capabilities we have made over the years are paying off, as money transfer and payment customers increasingly turn to Western Union’s unmatched, omni-channel platform to meet evolving needs. I am enthusiastic about the market opportunity to further enhance the Company’s strong position and to expand the customer segments for cross-border financial transactions.”

CFO Raj Agrawal stated, “We are pleased with third quarter results, as Consumer-to-Consumer segment trends improved significantly with 6% transaction growth, including more than 95% digital transaction growth for the second consecutive quarter. The business also generated solid dollar and margin profitability, resulting from productivity savings, prudent management of initiatives, and the strong economics of our fast-growing digital business. We remain focused on pushing forward with our growth strategy and given improved visibility into our market and commercial trends we have reissued a financial outlook for the full year 2020.”

Q3 Business Highlights

• Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) transactions increased 6% in the quarter, while revenues declined 1% on a reported basis and were flat on a constant currency basis. C2C revenues represented 88% of total Company revenue in the quarter. Within the C2C segment, cross-border money transfer revenues grew 2% and were offset by declines in domestic money transfers. Transaction growth was led by Europe and CIS, U.S. outbound, and the Middle East, partially offset by declines in U.S. domestic money transfer and Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Digital money transfer revenues increased 45% on a reported basis in the quarter, or 46% constant currency, and represented 21% and 31% of total C2C revenues and transactions, respectively. Westernunion.com revenue grew 33% on a reported basis and 32% constant currency, including cross-border revenue growth of 46%.
• Westernunion.com average monthly active customers for the third quarter increased 47% year-over-year. Westernunion.com was the most downloaded mobile app among peer money transfer companies during the third quarter, according to data provided by mobile app marketing firm Sensor Tower 1 . Westernunion.com service is available in over 75 countries, plus additional territories. Bank account payout is available in approximately 120 countries, with real-time capabilities to select bank accounts and digital wallets in approximately 80 countries, and retail payout in over 200 countries and territories.
• Western Union Business Solutions trends improved sequentially from the second quarter with revenues declining 11% on a reported basis, or 13% constant currency, primarily due to the ongoing macro-economic impact of COVID-19 on small and medium-sized enterprises, travel and tourism, and education. Other revenues, which consists of retail bill payments in Argentina and the U.S., as well as money orders, declined 33% primarily due to the depreciation of the Argentine peso and the impact of COVID-19. Business Solutions and Other represented 7% and 5%, respectively, of total Company revenue.

Additional Q3 Financial Highlights

• GAAP operating margin in the quarter was 22.7% compared to 15.1% in the prior year period, with the increase primarily attributable to lower restructuring costs in the current year. Adjusted operating margin was 23.5% compared to 22.3% in the prior year period. Margin expansion was primarily driven by productivity savings and additional cost savings related to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, partially offset by declines in revenue.
• The GAAP effective tax rate in the quarter was 12.4% compared to 16.8% in the prior year period, and the adjusted tax rate was 12.7% in the quarter compared to 18.0% in the prior year period. The decrease in the Company’s GAAP effective tax rate compared to the prior period was primarily due to a higher prior period domestic pre-tax income primarily due to the sales of the Speedpay and Paymap businesses offset by increased discrete expenses in the current period.
• Cash flow from operating activities was $586 million year-to-date compared to $665 million in the prior year period. The decrease in operating cash flow was primarily attributable to the timing of payments for restructuring and other activities, partially offset by lower income tax payments and an increase in operating income. The Company paid $92 million in dividends and did not repurchase shares during the third quarter.

2020 Outlook

The Company has reinstituted a financial outlook for full year 2020, with the key assumptions of no material changes from the current macro-economic conditions and no significant worsening of the COVID-19 pandemic, as follows:

Revenue

• GAAP: High-single digit decline
• Adjusted constant currency: Mid-single digit decline, excluding any benefit related to Argentina inflation

Operating Profit Margin

• GAAP operating margin of approximately 20% and adjusted operating margin of approximately 21%

Earnings per Share

• GAAP EPS in a range of $1.72 - $1.77
• Adjusted EPS in a range of $1.80 -$1.85

Adjustment Items

Adjusted constant currency revenue metrics for 2020 exclude revenues for the Speedpay and Paymap businesses in the prior year period, each of which was divested in May 2019. Adjusted operating profit, tax rate, and earnings per share metrics for 2020 periods exclude restructuring expenses and acquisition and divestiture costs, net of related taxes, as applicable.

Adjusted constant currency revenue metrics for 2019 exclude revenues for the Speedpay and Paymap businesses. Adjusted operating profit metrics for 2019 periods exclude restructuring expenses and acquisition and divestiture costs. Adjusted tax rate and earnings per share metrics for 2019 periods exclude the impact of the net gain on the Speedpay and Paymap divestitures, restructuring expenses, and acquisition and divestiture costs. Restructuring expenses are not included in operating segment results.

Although the Company has previously incurred and can reasonably be expected to incur restructuring costs in the future, these expenses are specific to the implementation of the Global Strategy initiative and the Company has therefore provided adjusted financial results that exclude these expenses.

Additional Statistics

Additional key statistics for the quarter and historical trends can be found in the supplemental tables included with this press release.

All amounts included in the supplemental tables to this press release are rounded to the nearest tenth of a million, except as otherwise noted. As a result, the percentage changes and margins disclosed herein may not recalculate precisely using the rounded amounts provided.

Non-GAAP Measures

Western Union presents a number of non-GAAP financial measures because management believes that these metrics provide meaningful supplemental information in addition to the GAAP metrics and provide comparability and consistency to prior periods. Constant currency results assume foreign revenues are translated from foreign currencies to the U.S. dollar, net of the effect of foreign currency hedges, at rates consistent with those in the prior year.

Reconciliations of non-GAAP to comparable GAAP measures are available in the accompanying schedules and in the “Investor Relations” section of the Company’s website at http://ir.westernunion.com .

Investor and Analyst Conference Call and Slide Presentation

The Company will host a conference call and webcast, including slides, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time today. To listen to the conference call via telephone, dial +1 (888) 317-6003 (U.S.) or +1 (412) 317-6061 (outside the U.S.) ten minutes prior to the start of the call. The pass code is 1019071.

The conference call and accompanying slides will be available via webcast at http://ir.westernunion.com . Registration for the event is required, so please register at least five minutes prior to the scheduled start time.

A webcast replay will be available at http://ir.westernunion.com .

Please note: All statements made by Western Union officers on this call are the property of Western Union and subject to copyright protection. Other than the replay, Western Union has not authorized, and disclaims responsibility for, any recording, replay or distribution of any transcription of this call.

Safe Harbor Compliance Statement for Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain statements that are forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, our forward-looking statements. Words such as "expects," "intends," "targets," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "guides," "provides guidance," "provides outlook," and other similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," and "might" are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Readers of this press release of The Western Union Company (the "Company," "Western Union," "we," "our," or "us") should not rely solely on the forward-looking statements and should consider all uncertainties and risks discussed in the Risk Factors section and throughout the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019. The statements are only as of the date they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

Possible events or factors that could cause results or performance to differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements include the following: (i) events related to our business and industry, such as: changes in general economic conditions and economic conditions in the regions and industries in which we operate, including global economic downturns and trade disruptions, or significantly slower growth or declines in the money transfer, payment service, and other markets in which we operate, including downturns or declines related to interruptions in migration patterns or other events, such as public health emergencies, epidemics, or pandemics such as COVID-19, civil unrest, war, terrorism, or natural disasters, or non-performance by our banks, lenders, insurers, or other financial services providers; failure to compete effectively in the money transfer and payment service industry, including among other things, with respect to price, with global and niche or corridor money transfer providers, banks and other money transfer and payment service providers, including electronic, mobile and internet-based services, card associations, and card-based payment providers, and with digital currencies and related protocols, and other innovations in technology and business models; political conditions and related actions, including trade restrictions and government sanctions, in the United States and abroad, which may adversely affect our business and economic conditions as a whole, including interruptions of United States or other government relations with countries in which we have or are implementing significant business relationships with agents or clients; deterioration in customer confidence in our business, or in money transfer and payment service providers generally; our ability to adopt new technology and develop and gain market acceptance of new and enhanced services in response to changing industry and consumer needs or trends; changes in, and failure to manage effectively, exposure to foreign exchange rates, including the impact of the regulation of foreign exchange spreads on money transfers and payment transactions; any material breach of security, including cybersecurity, or safeguards of or interruptions in any of our systems or those of our vendors or other third parties; cessation of or defects in various services provided to us by third-party vendors; mergers, acquisitions, and the integration of acquired businesses and technologies into our Company, divestitures, and the failure to realize anticipated financial benefits from these transactions, and events requiring us to write down our goodwill; decisions to change our business mix; our ability to realize the anticipated benefits from restructuring-related initiatives, which may include decisions to downsize or to transition operating activities from one location to another, and to minimize any disruptions in our workforce that may result from those initiatives; failure to manage credit and fraud risks presented by our agents, clients, and consumers; failure to maintain our agent network and business relationships under terms consistent with or more advantageous to us than those currently in place, including due to increased costs or loss of business as a result of increased compliance requirements or difficulty for us, our agents, or their subagents in establishing or maintaining relationships with banks needed to conduct our services; changes in tax laws or their interpretation, any subsequent regulation, and potential related state income tax impacts, and unfavorable resolution of tax contingencies; adverse rating actions by credit rating agencies; our ability to protect our brands and our other intellectual property rights and to defend ourselves against potential intellectual property infringement claims; our ability to attract and retain qualified key employees and to manage our workforce successfully; material changes in the market value or liquidity of securities that we hold; restrictions imposed by our debt obligations; (ii) events related to our regulatory and litigation environment, such as: liabilities or loss of business resulting from a failure by us, our agents, or their subagents to comply with laws and regulations and regulatory or judicial interpretations thereof, including laws and regulations designed to protect consumers, or detect and prevent money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, and other illicit activity; increased costs or loss of business due to regulatory initiatives and changes in laws, regulations and industry practices and standards, including changes in interpretations, in the United States and abroad, affecting us, our agents, or their subagents, or the banks with which we or our agents maintain bank accounts needed to provide our services, including related to anti-money laundering regulations, anti-fraud measures, our licensing arrangements, customer due diligence, agent and subagent due diligence, registration and monitoring requirements, consumer protection requirements, remittances, and immigration; liabilities, increased costs or loss of business and unanticipated developments resulting from governmental investigations and consent agreements with or enforcement actions by regulators; liabilities resulting from litigation, including class-action lawsuits and similar matters, and regulatory enforcement actions, including costs, expenses, settlements, and judgments; failure to comply with regulations and evolving industry standards regarding consumer privacy, data use, the transfer of personal data between jurisdictions and information security with respect to the General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act; failure to comply with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, as well as regulations issued pursuant to it and the actions of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and similar legislation and regulations enacted by other governmental authorities in the United States and abroad related to consumer protection and derivative transactions; effects of unclaimed property laws or their interpretation or the enforcement thereof; failure to maintain sufficient amounts or types of regulatory capital or other restrictions on the use of our working capital to meet the changing requirements of our regulators worldwide; changes in accounting standards, rules and interpretations, or industry standards affecting our business; and (iii) other events such as: catastrophic events; and management’s ability to identify and manage these and other risks.

About Western Union

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments. Our omnichannel platform connects the digital and physical worlds and makes it possible for consumers and businesses to send and receive money and make payments with speed, ease, and reliability. As of September 30, 2020, our network included over 550,000 retail agent locations offering our branded services in more than 200 countries and territories, with the capability to send money to billions of accounts. Additionally, westernunion.com, our fastest growing channel in 2019, is available in over 75 countries, plus additional territories, to move money around the world. With our global reach, Western Union moves money for better, connecting family, friends, and businesses to enable financial inclusion and support economic growth. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com .

WU-G

THE WESTERN UNION COMPANY

NOTES TO KEY STATISTICS

(in millions, unless indicated otherwise)

(Unaudited)

Western Union’s management believes the non-GAAP financial measures presented provide meaningful supplemental information regarding our operating results to assist management, investors, analysts, and others in understanding our financial results and to better analyze trends in our underlying business because they provide consistency and comparability to prior periods. We have also included non-GAAP revenues that remove the impact of Speedpay and Paymap in order to provide a more meaningful comparison of results from continuing operations.

A non-GAAP financial measure should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the most comparable GAAP financial measure. A non-GAAP financial measure reflects an additional way of viewing aspects of our operations that, when viewed with our GAAP results and the reconciliation to the corresponding GAAP financial measure, provide a more complete understanding of our business. Users of the financial statements are encouraged to review our financial statements and publicly-filed reports in their entirety and not to rely on any single financial measure. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included below, where not previously reconciled above.