Western Union Sees Digital Transactions Grow but Revenues Decline

Western Union is seeing growth in the number of digital transactions.

During the quarter ended March 31, the firm recorded 7% growth in the number of digital transactions, the company said in a Tuesday (May 2) press release.

This gain came during a quarter in which the company’s revenues declined 10%, largely due to its suspension of operations in Russia and Belarus, softness in the retail money transfer business and the impact of promotional pricing, according to the release.

“While revenue remained below our long-term aspirations for the company, we were pleased to see a significant improvement in trajectory relative to the fourth quarter in many key markets around the world,” Western Union President and CEO Devin McGranahan said in the release. “We are particularly pleased with the ongoing momentum in our digital business with 14% growth in our new branded digital customer base, which accelerated global branded digital transaction growth to 7%.”

The number of transactions increased but the branded digital revenue declined 7%. The company attributed 2 percentage points of that decline to the situation in Russia and Belarus and said the promotional pricing activities it has used in its go-to-market strategy also contributed to the drop, according to the release.

Western Union’s consumer-to-consumer (C2C) revenues declined 6%, with Russia and Belarus accounting for three percentage points of that drop. There was also softness in Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), North America and Asia-Pacific (APAC), which was partially offset by strength in Latin America and Central America (LACA) and the Middle East, Africa, South Asia (MEASA) region, the release said.

Looking ahead, Western Union expects its revenue for the full year 2023 to decline between 9% and 7%, per the release.

“We remain focused on driving our Evolve 2025 strategy to become the leading provider of branded accessible financial services serving aspiring populations around the world,” McGranahan said.

As PYMNTS reported in October 2022, the Western Union’s Evolve 2025 strategy connects its purpose by bringing high-value, accessible financial services to emerging populations around the globe and aims to put revenue trends on an upward trajectory.