Western Union digital services enhanced in the UAE with mobile app and online access

DUBAI: Western Union’sglobal digital money-moving capabilities were enhanced in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as a part of the company’s deep commitment to keeping this nation at the forefront of the digital revolution.

Along with the UAE, Western Union is making significant headway across the Middle East, with more than seven countries now offering online services includingBahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman and Qatar.

In the UAE, the company launched the Western Union^® mobile app and relaunched the Westernunion.com website, in association with local Agent Al Fardan Exchange, one of the leading financial services providers in the country. Customers in the UAE can now connect to their families and loved ones around the world digitally with the choice to pay for transactions online or within the app via direct transfers from their bank accounts set up in the UAE.

Currently, Western Union offers digital service via WU.com in over 60 countries, plus territories, with mobile apps in 35 countries; moreover, its entire network is a combination of retail Agent locations in more than 200 countries and territories, account payout in nearly 100 countries, and wallet payout in a dozen countries.

The Middle East is a vital and rising economic hub bringing people together from across Europe, Africa and Asia and lifting them toward prosperity. International migrants working and living across the region represent a large part of the population and collectively send billions of remittances back home. In the UAE, 88 percent of the population are international migrants, followed by Qatar at 75 percent, Kuwait 72 percent, Bahrain 51 percent, Oman 41 percent, Jordan 40 percent and Lebanon 34 percent, according to the World Bank¹.

The UAE remits a sizeable volume of the total amount of remittances, which makes the country the third largest person-to-person remittance market in the world, according to the World Bank².

“Our commitment to the Middle East is a step forward to a more prosperous and globally connected future. Our digital services support globally-integrated living without leaving anyone behind. We use cutting-edge technology to simplify money transfer. Our systems automatically handle complexities from compliance to volatile currency exchanges so users can transfer money 24/7 to nearly every country across the world, with the touch of a few buttons,” said Western Union President and CEO, Hikmet Ersek.

“Our systems are also designed so that customers at any level of financial experience can use any channel they like, be it digital or cash, online or offline,” he said.

“The ability to smoothly and fluidly transfer money internationally by the latest digital means elevates our relevance to our customers across the world. We have offered our services for more than two decades across the Middle East, including the UAE and we are pleased to be collaborating with Al Fardan Exchange,” said Western Union General Manager and RVP for Middle East and Africa, Alexandru Badulescu.

“Western Union’s customers are multi-cultural, multi-generational with diverse financial and technological savviness.  Our omni-channel approach is about servicing the widest group of customers by catering to their specific money transfers needs,” he said.

Al Fardan Exchange has offered walk-in Western Union^® Money Transfer Services since 2010 and now offers customers the choice to complete their transaction digitally online or commence transaction digitally and pay-in-person across 67 Agent locations.

“The UAE launch is aligned with this vision of the country, one that is staying on the edge of innovation to make a better life for all its people. This is where UAE and Western Union grow together, and we are glad to be a part of this historic collaboration,” said Al Fardan Exchange LLC CEO, Osama Al Rahma.

“Digital tools mean, at their essence, more ways to reach more people and more opportunities for all. The more the UAE fulfills its ambitious plans for economic transformation, the greater will be its need to interact with the world. More workers from overseas, more tourists visiting its shores, more students going abroad to study all require better flows of international capital,” he said.

As one of the world’s most innovative nations, the UAE is striving forward with an ambitious agenda of growth and dynamism. According to the Global Competitiveness Report 2018 by the World Economic Forum, the UAE is ranked first in the world for mobile broadband subscription rate, and second in the mobile subscription index - which highlight both the country’s high level of commitment to digital development and its fast rate of mobile adoption.

Western Union has been providing money-transfer services in the UAE for over 20 years and has more than 900 retail agent locations in the country. Customers still have the choice to access these locations to send money transfers in person, reflecting the company’s commitment to providing choice and options to connect to families and friends around the world.

Ronak Thakkar 
Account Manager | United Arab Emirates
FleishmanHillard|Impact BBDO, 21^st Floor, Emirates Towers| Dubai |UAE
O +971-(0)43304030/ E 459
M +971-545869828
E ronak.thakkar@fleishman.com 

© Press Release 2019