Western Union Expansion with ChangeGroup Bureaux de Change Integrates Western Union® Mobile App to Expedite Pay in Person
London, U.K., 10 April 2019 – The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement, and ChangeGroup, one of the world’s leading providers of foreign currency and tourist services, announced today that customers are now able to send Western Union international money transfers to more than 200 countries and territories from ChangeGroup’s 16 bureaux de change locations in the U.K.
Customers in the U.K. can start a money transfer transaction on the Western Union mobile app (available on iOS and Android), and then pay in cash at any ChangeGroup bureau, offering additional speed, convenience, and the ability to track the transaction through the app or complete the entire transaction in person.
Integrating Western Union’s mobile app to expedite convenience and service levels for customers with preference for in person interaction is a growing opportunity. Today, 100% of Western Union’s retail locations across the U.K. have been integrated to allow customers to start on the app and pay in person.
Consumers have the choice for receivers to pick up their money in cash at one of Western Union’s more than half a million global retail Agent locations* or pay out into billions of bank accounts in nearly 100 countries, and mobile wallets where available.
Western Union services are also offered by ChangeGroup in Germany and parts of Scandinavia with expansion plans across the U.S., Spain, Austria and France.
“We are very pleased to be expanding our relationship with ChangeGroup and adding them to the Western Union family of Agents in the U.K.. As part of Western Union’s broader fintech and innovation strategy, the company is extending its digital transformation by integrating digital services across our physical Agent network”, said Massimiliano Alvisini, GM Europe & CIS, Global Money Transfer at Western Union.
“The agreement offers customer benefits from both companies, such as the longer opening hours which ChangeGroup bureaux can offer, while Western Union’s digital services will help speed-up transactions in-bureau and offers customers the choice of sending money via mobile app, web, retail, bank or mobile wallet. We are pleased to extend this choice to customers of ChangeGroup,” he said.
Sacha Zackariya, CEO of ChangeGroup added, “ChangeGroup is delighted to have signed a multi-year global agreement with Western Union. Their cash to cash services are in strong demand from the hundreds of millions of people who see our brand annually. We look forward to developing more services to offer customers and to continuing to grow internationally.”
Western Union has a network of more than 5,700 Agent locations* across the United Kingdom, including locations from major retailers such as John Lewis, Ryman, Debenhams and Sainsbury’s.
*As of 31 December 2018
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About Western Union
The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement. 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 December 31, 2018, our network included over 550,000 retail agent locations offering Western Union, Vigo or Orlandi Valuta 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 2018, is available in more than 60 countries, plus additional territories, to move money around the world. In 2018, we moved over $300 billion in principal in nearly 130 currencies and processed 34 transactions every second across all our services. 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
About ChangeGroup
ChangeGroup is one of the world’s leading providers of foreign currency and tourist services to the international traveller. We opened our first bureau de change in London’s Regent Street back in April 1992. Originally funded by the venture capital group 3i plc, ChangeGroup has progressively grown and currently has operations in 12 countries and 37 cities across Europe and Australia and continues to expand.
ChangeGroup is still owned by the founding family. Our passionate, caring, ‘hands–on’ management style is at the heart of business, driving long term benefits for the international traveller. It is our commitment to exceptional customer service that has helped us become one of the most successful foreign exchange companies in the world, servicing some 3 million individual customer transactions each year. Our range of products has been developed to suit the international traveller and international business. Over the years ChangeGroup has developed a reputation for being a trustworthy provider of money exchange services. We change money for international customers whom, from Germany to China and beyond, still like the convenience of paying with cash for their private purchases and gifts.
