The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a global leader in
cross-border, cross-currency money movements and payments, has
continued to closely monitor the development of the unprecedented
COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to protect and serve the interests
of all stakeholders. Through mid-March of this year, the impact of
COVID-19 on the Company’s operations across over 200 countries and
territories had been limited to a few countries, notably China and
Italy, and had minimal impact on overall results that were in line
with the Company’s expectations, highlighting the durability of its
cross-border money transfer business.
In the later part of March, particularly recent days, the spread
of COVID-19 has rapidly accelerated around the globe. In response,
many governments have implemented policies intended to stop or slow
the further spread of the disease, such as lockdowns,
shelter-in-place, or restricted movement guidelines. These policies
have also resulted in lower consumer and commercial activity across
many markets and the closure of some Western Union Agent locations.
Consequently, Western Union’s retail money transfer business
experienced a more pronounced year-over-year decline in
transactions during the later part of March that will likely
continue for the near-term. However, the fundamentals of the
Company’s business remain on track as its digital money transfer
business has continued to experience strong transaction growth
through late March, while the Business Solutions segment also
continued to deliver solid results so far.
The uncertainty over the eventual scale and duration of the
COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the global economy limit the
Company’s ability to reasonably forecast 2020 financial results at
this time. Therefore, the Company is withdrawing its full-year 2020
financial outlook and plans to provide an update on views on 2020
with first quarter results planned for release in May 2020.
The Company’s strong balance sheet and financial position and
vast retail network that is largely currently operating provide a
strong competitive position. Furthermore, the Company remains
enthusiastic about its leading digital money transfer business,
including Westernunion.com, white label partnerships, and recently
launched services such as the “Digital location” channel.
As the current situation evolves, the Company is advising
customers of any changes in service in the Agent network with the
Agent Locator link for the status of the nearest locations.
Safe Harbor Compliance Statement for Forward-Looking
Statements
This press release contains certain statements that are
forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are not guarantees
of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and
assumptions that are difficult to predict. Actual outcomes and
results may differ materially from those expressed in, or implied
by, our forward-looking statements. Words such as "expects,"
"intends," "targets," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates,"
"guides," "provides guidance," "provides outlook" and other similar
expressions or future or conditional verbs such as "may," "will,"
"should," "would," "could," and "might" are intended to identify
such forward-looking statements. Readers of this press release of
The Western Union Company (the "Company," "Western Union," "we,"
"our" or "us") should not rely solely on the forward-looking
statements and should consider all uncertainties and risks
discussed in the "Risk Factors" section and throughout the Annual
Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019. The
statements are only as of the date they are made, and the Company
undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
Possible events or factors that could cause results or performance
to differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking
statements include the following: (i) events related to our
business and industry, such as: changes in general economic
conditions and economic conditions in the regions and industries in
which we operate, including global economic downturns and trade
disruptions, or significantly slower growth or declines in the
money transfer, payment service, and other markets in which we
operate, including downturns or declines related to interruptions
in migration patterns or other events, such as public health
emergencies or epidemics such as COVID-19, civil unrest, war,
terrorism, or natural disasters, or non-performance by our banks,
lenders, insurers, or other financial services providers; failure
to compete effectively in the money transfer and payment service
industry, including among other things, with respect to price, with
global and niche or corridor money transfer providers, banks and
other money transfer and payment service providers, including
electronic, mobile and internet-based services, card associations,
and card-based payment providers, and with digital currencies and
related protocols, and other innovations in technology and business
models; political conditions and related actions, including trade
restrictions and government sanctions, in the United States and
abroad, which may adversely affect our business and economic
conditions as a whole, including interruptions of United States or
other government relations with countries in which we have or are
implementing significant business relationships with agents or
clients; deterioration in customer confidence in our business, or
in money transfer and payment service providers generally; our
ability to adopt new technology and develop and gain market
acceptance of new and enhanced services in response to changing
industry and consumer needs or trends; changes in, and failure to
manage effectively, exposure to foreign exchange rates, including
the impact of the regulation of foreign exchange spreads on money
transfers and payment transactions; any material breach of
security, including cybersecurity, or safeguards of or
interruptions in any of our systems or those of our vendors or
other third parties; cessation of or defects in various services
provided to us by third-party vendors; mergers, acquisitions, and
the integration of acquired businesses and technologies into our
Company, divestitures, and the failure to realize anticipated
financial benefits from these transactions, and events requiring us
to write down our goodwill; decisions to change our business mix;
our ability to realize the anticipated benefits from
restructuring-related initiatives, which may include decisions to
downsize or to transition operating activities from one location to
another, and to minimize any disruptions in our workforce that may
result from those initiatives; failure to manage credit and fraud
risks presented by our agents, clients, and consumers; failure to
maintain our agent network and business relationships under terms
consistent with or more advantageous to us than those currently in
place, including due to increased costs or loss of business as a
result of increased compliance requirements or difficulty for us,
our agents, or their subagents in establishing or maintaining
relationships with banks needed to conduct our services; changes in
tax laws, or their interpretation, any subsequent regulation, and
potential related state income tax impacts, and unfavorable
resolution of tax contingencies; adverse rating actions by credit
rating agencies; our ability to protect our brands and our other
intellectual property rights, and to defend ourselves against
potential intellectual property infringement claims; our ability to
attract and retain qualified key employees and to manage our
workforce successfully; material changes in the market value or
liquidity of securities that we hold; restrictions imposed by our
debt obligations; (ii) events related to our regulatory and
litigation environment, such as: liabilities or loss of business
resulting from a failure by us, our agents, or their subagents to
comply with laws and regulations and regulatory or judicial
interpretations thereof, including laws and regulations designed to
protect consumers, or detect and prevent money laundering,
terrorist financing, fraud, and other illicit activity; increased
costs or loss of business due to regulatory initiatives and changes
in laws, regulations and industry practices and standards,
including changes in interpretations, in the United States and
abroad, affecting us, our agents or their subagents, or the banks
with which we or our agents maintain bank accounts needed to
provide our services, including related to anti-money laundering
regulations, anti-fraud measures, our licensing arrangements,
customer due diligence, agent and subagent due diligence,
registration and monitoring requirements, consumer protection
requirements, remittances, and immigration; liabilities, increased
costs or loss of business and unanticipated developments resulting
from governmental investigations and consent agreements with or
enforcement actions by regulators, including those associated with
the settlement agreements with the United States Department of
Justice, certain United States Attorney’s Offices, the United
States Federal Trade Commission, the Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network of the United States Department of Treasury, and various
state attorneys general (the “Joint Settlement Agreements”);
liabilities resulting from litigation, including class-action
lawsuits and similar matters, and regulatory enforcement actions,
including costs, expenses, settlements, and judgments; failure to
comply with regulations and evolving industry standards regarding
consumer privacy and data use and security, including with respect
to the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) in the European
Union (“EU”) and the California Consumer Privacy Act; failure to
comply with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer
Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”), as well as regulations
issued pursuant to it and the actions of the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) and similar legislation and regulations
enacted by other governmental authorities in the United States and
abroad related to consumer protection and derivative transactions;
effects of unclaimed property laws or their interpretation or the
enforcement thereof; failure to maintain sufficient amounts or
types of regulatory capital or other restrictions on the use of our
working capital to meet the changing requirements of our regulators
worldwide; changes in accounting standards, rules and
interpretations, or industry standards affecting our business;
catastrophic events; and management’s ability to identify and
manage these and other risks.
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,
2019, our network included over 550,000 retail agent locations
offering our branded services in more than 200 countries and
territories, with the capability to send money to billions of
accounts. Additionally, westernunion.com is available in over 70
countries, plus additional territories, to move money around the
world. 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.
WU-G
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200327005519/en/
Media Relations: Pia De Lima +1 (954) 260-5732
Pia.DeLima@westernunion.com
Investor Relations: Brad Windbigler +1 (720) 332-2510
brad.windbigler@westernunion.com
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