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Helping postal organisations profit from payments
Western Union’s Director of Post Office
Relationships Daniela Budurea speaks about
the changes – and how they benefit postal
organisations.
How does the Western Union business model
benefit postal organisations?
There has always been a very natural fit
between Western Union and the posts.
We provide a ready-made way to enter the
money-moving business. We therefore help
postal organisations to offer a vital service
to their customers. And, at the same time,
they get the opportunity to earn additional
revenues and benefit from new efficiencies.
As the best known name in the business,
we have the global reach, backed-up by a
well-recognised and highly-trusted brand.
We also have the expertise and the resources
to deal with all of the related regulatory and
compliance requirements.
Western Union has restructured its European
business. What are the changes, and how do
they benefit postal organisations?
Across everything we do, Western Union now
puts even more emphasis on understanding
our customers and addressing their particular
needs. For the postal community this means
that we now have two dedicated teams. One of
them, which I head up, looks after all of postal
organisations across Central and Southern
Europe. The other, led by my colleague Corina
Popa, does the same for postal organisations
across Western and Northern Europe. The
people in these teams have specialist, relevant
experience. They are focussed exclusively on
our postal partners, with no distractions and no
conflicting priorities. Their job is to understand
the needs of every postal organisation across
Europe and to develop the best solutions for
each one of them.
Many postal organisations already offer a
full range of financial products. Why would
they want to work with Western Union?
Today, we offer so much more than a simple
cash-in-cash-out money transfer service.
We offer account based money transfer
solutions. We offer ways for people to send
and receive money via their mobile phone.
We also have a rapidly growing prepaid card
business. And we offer a full range of solutions
for smaller businesses (for example, allowing
them to protect their business from currency
fluctuations, minimise their foreign exchange
costs, or easily make cross-border payments
in so-called exotic currencies).
No matter how sophisticated a particular postal
organisation may be, we can always find
ways to bring more value. A good example is
our relationship with PostFinance in Switzer-
land. Here, Western Union is fully integrated
providing money transfer on an electronic
channel network as well as its e-finance online
payment service. Customers can also use the
Western Union Mobile Money Transfer service.
At the other end of the scale, a remote post
office branch in a less-developed country can
serve the local community while generating
more revenues by simply disbursing cash
(when, otherwise, it would cost money to trans-
port and secure this cash).
6 Eurogiro News
What impact has the financial crisis had on
the money transfer business?
Irrespective of the financial crisis, people con-
tinue to move around the world, and the mon-
ey transfer business continues to grow – and
World Bank numbers point to more growth for
the foreseeable future. The economic impact
of our business is also significant. In some
Central European countries, for example, the
value of remittances greatly exceeds the value
of direct foreign investment. Meanwhile, in
more developed economies, the use of formal
money transfer services can limit the extent of
the grey economy.
How about technological innovation?
How can Western Union help its partners?
Today, cash-to-cash remittances continue
to dominate the market. But digital and
mobile channels are growing extremely fast.
And Western Union is setting the pace. We
are investing heavily in our online, mobile
and account-based solutions. We have also
developed a new range of innovative point of
sale terminals. By integrating our systems with
yours, it becomes possible to benefit from
these investments and offer a convenient,
secure, online service to your customers.
This is another benefit that we offer – and
another advantage of partnering with
Western Union.
3
Western Union has been partnering with the European postal community for more than two
decades. By working together, it becomes possible to provide a fast, secure and convenient
global remittance service to consumers and business customers alike. Western Union has now
re-focused its operations, bringing more specialised and dedicated support to its postal partners
>
First co-operation agreement be-
tween Eurogiro and Western Union
was signed in 1998 and latest
renewal was in 2008
>
The alliance allows Eurogiro
members to work with Western
Eurogiro and Western Union co-operation lasts for more than a decade now
Union especially on the well-known
“Will Call”
>
The Eurogiro-Western Union umbrella
agreement offers an attractive bonus
scheme for participating Eurogiro
members
>
Western Union has expanded its
number of Agents among the
Eurogiro members significantly.
In 1998 six Eurogiro members were
Western Union Agents – in 2012
the number is 34 Direct Agents and
five Sub Agents.