UniCredit customers in Italy will have access to the Western Union Money Transfer service through their bank accounts
Western Union, a global leader in payment services, and UniCredit, a leading European financial services group in Europe, have signed an agreement to offer Western Union's Account Based Money Transfer service (ABMT) in Italy. Having already successfully teamed up with UniCredit in eight countries, this agreement represents the continued commitment to deliver best in class money transfer services across the UniCredit network.
Account Based Money Transfer will give UniCredit customers convenient access to the Western Union service via online banking and through any of the 7,800 ATM's and 4,000 kiosks in the UniCredit network, enabling them to send money from their accounts 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to more than 450,000 Western Union Agent locations.
Jan Hillered, Senior Vice President - Europe & CIS, Western Union, says, "Western Union is delighted to extend our successful relationship with UniCredit. This agreement is a clear demonstration of the increasing success of our electronic banking channels strategy that seeks to provide value-adding services to banks for the benefit of their customers, and now totals more than 80 deals signed."
Western Union's Account Based Money Transfer service is a key part of its strategy to develop electronic channels with banks. This enables banks to provide their customers with the ability to send or receive money directly to and from their accounts, and meets a growing demand for this service. This is part of a suite of services that Western Union now provides to support any channel: at point of sale, online, via mobile, in self-service kiosks, through ATMs or by phone with a call centre.
Jan Hillered, says, "Western Union's development of services such as account based money transfers is part of our commitment to meet consumers' financial needs by offering access to more locations and opportunities, so that they can conveniently make use of our services wherever and whenever they need them."
"It's my pleasure to announce the launch of this new service, available in the coming months, that will allow our clients to send money abroad" says Alessandro Decio, Head of Family&SME Division at UniCredit.
Thanks to our network, with 7.800 cash machine and 4.000 kiosk, and our internet banking service, it will be easier for our clients to send promptly and widely money to their families abroad.
For the clients of Agenzia Tu - our network dedicated to foreign clients - it will also be possible to take advantage of the service at the counter. The partnership with Western Union confirms our dedication to our foreign customer satisfaction that have chosen UniCredit as their main bank, allowing us to be closer in their everyday life."
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 Feb. 7, 2012, the Western Union, Vigo and Orlandi Valuta branded services are offered through a combined network of approximately 485,000 agent locations in 200 countries and territories. In 2010, The Western Union Company completed 214 million consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, moving $76 billion of principal between consumers, and 405 million business payments.
For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.
UniCredit
UniCredit is a major international financial institution with strong roots in 22 European countries and an overall international network present in approximately 50 markets, over 9,500 branches and 160,000 employees as of 30 September 2011.
In the CEE region, UniCredit operates the largest international banking network with nearly 3,900 branches.
The Group operates in the following countries: Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine.
Milan, February 8 2012
Enquiries:
UniCredit Media Relations Italy
Tel. + 39 06 6707 0433 mediarelations@unicredit.eu