Western Union ties up with Globe, Smart

MANILA, Philippines – US-based The Western Union Co. said it has activated money transfers from nearly 70,000 agent locations in 27 countries directly to Globe Telecom and Smart Communications mobile subscribers in the Philippines.

In addition, consumers in six countries can visit www.westernunion.com to send funds online using a credit or debit card directly to Smart or Globe subscribers’ mobile wallets, or accounts tied to their mobile phones.

Globe currently has 24 million subscribers, of which one million are enrolled in its GCash mobile wallet service while Smart has more than 45 million, of which more than eight million are enrolled in Smart Money.

To send a Western Union Mobile Money Transfer to a Globe GCash or Smart Money accountholder, consumers can simply visit a participating Western Union agent location in 27 countries or a Western Union website in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom or the United States. The transaction is completed just like a traditional money transfer, except that the sender provides the receiver’s mobile phone number and the funds are received in the receiver’s mobile wallet instead of being paid out in cash.

“The Western Union Mobile Money Transfer service is a key part of our multi-channel strategy to offer our consumers numerous ways to send and receive money. By continually expanding the number of locations where overseas Filipino workers can send funds to their loved ones’ mobile phones, we believe we are making it more convenient for our consumers in the Philippines to receive funds how, where and when they want,” Western Union mobile transaction services head Khalid Fellahi said.

More than half of the 70,000 send locations are in the US, and more than 12,000 are in the UK.

Western Union also offers the mobile money transfer service in Kenya with Safaricom; in Malaysia with Maxis; and in South Africa with Absa Bank. The company also recently announced an agreement with EnStream in Canada and has agreements with Zain (Airtel) in Africa and Orascom in the Middle East and with the State Bank of India, the Tunisian Post and with the Bank of Commerce & Development (BoCD) in Libya.