Empresas y finanzas

Western Union and GSMA to Create New Global Mobile Money Transfer Service



    The GSM Association (GSMA), a global trade association
    representing over 700 GSM mobile phone operators, and The Western
    Union Company (NYSE: WU), a global leader in money-transfer services,
    today announced an agreement to facilitate the development of
    cross-border mobile money transfer services.

    Western Union and the GSMA are developing a commercial and
    technical framework that mobile operators can use to deploy services
    that enable consumers to send and receive low-denomination,
    high-frequency money transfers using their mobile phones. The first
    commercial services that make use of the framework are anticipated to
    be rolled out beginning in the second quarter of 2008.

    The framework forms a key element of both Western Union's mobile
    strategy and the GSMA's Mobile Money Transfer program which aims to
    use the reach and ease of mobile money transfer services to expand the
    mobile financial services market and stimulate social and economic
    development. Mobile money transfer services will make it simple, quick
    and affordable for more people to send small amounts of money through
    a conventional and regulated system. Both Western Union and the GSMA
    believe there is an opportunity to create and grow a large new market
    for low-denomination transfers.

    "Mobile networks now cover more than 80 percent of the world's
    population and 3 billion people(1) have a mobile phone, creating an
    unprecedented opportunity to extend the benefits of financial services
    to the majority of the world's families for the first time," said Rob
    Conway, CEO of the GSMA. "Mobile money transfers are a key driver in
    the development of a potentially vast market for financial services
    delivered via the mobile phone."

    "Western Union has a long tradition of innovation," said Western
    Union President and CEO Christina Gold. "Our focus on the mobile money
    transfer space is an important step in expanding the range of Western
    Union's global services to a new category of consumers. Our brand,
    extensive network, and compliance capabilities, combined with the GSMA
    members' market reach, uniquely positions Western Union in the mobile
    money transfer marketplace."

    The Western Union mobile service will connect operators to Western
    Union's existing global money transfer system, which processed
    approximately 17 percent of the world's remittance volume in 2006.
    Once connected to the Western Union service, operators will be able to
    use their own "mobile wallet" software to enable person-to-person
    mobile money transfers over Western Union's cross-border remittance
    network. The Mobile Money Transfer service will enable consumers to
    transfer money to or from mobile wallets and will offer a global
    network of Western Union Agent locations for cash-to-mobile and
    mobile-to-cash transactions.

    Thirty-five GSMA operators with more than 800 million customers in
    more than 100 countries are participating in the GSMA Mobile Money
    Transfer program. Led by Sunil Mittal, the Chairman and Managing
    Director of Bharti Airtel, the Mobile Money Transfer program is
    overseen by a steering committee made up of representatives from
    Bharti, MTN, Orange, Orascom, Smart, Telenor and VimpelCom.

    "Remittances are playing a vital role in the social and economic
    development of India and many other developing countries," said Mr.
    Mittal. "This initiative will bring down the cost of lower-value and
    high-frequency mobile remittances considerably and also enable smaller
    amounts to be transferred in a fast and secure fashion, thereby
    benefiting millions of people in the developing world."

    Western Union and its affiliates provide money transfer services
    across 200 countries through a network of more than 312,000 Agent
    locations.

    Notes to editors:

    (1) Source: GSMA

    The GSMA and Western Union will provide more details at the
    forthcoming Mobile Asia Congress, which takes place in Macau between
    12th and 15th November.

    About the GSMA

    The GSM Association (GSMA) is the global trade association
    representing more than 700 GSM mobile phone operators across 218
    countries and territories of the world. In addition, more than 200
    manufacturers and suppliers support the Association's initiatives as
    key partners.

    The primary goals of the GSMA are to ensure mobile phones and
    wireless services work globally and are easily accessible, enhancing
    their value to individual customers and national economies, whiles
    creating news business opportunities for operators and their
    suppliers. The Association's members serve more than two billion
    customers - 82% of the world's mobile phone users.

    About The Western Union Company

    Western Union, together with its affiliates Orlandi Valuta and
    Vigo, is a leading provider of global money-transfer services,
    providing people with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send money
    around the world, pay bills and purchase money orders through a
    network of more than 312,000 Agent locations in over 200 countries and
    territories. For more information, visit www.WesternUnion.com.

    Western Union Safe Harbor Compliance Statement for Forward-Looking
    Statements

    This presentation contains forward-looking statements regarding
    projected future results. Forward-looking statements include all
    statements that do not relate solely to historical or current facts,
    and generally can be identified by the use of words such as "may,"
    "believe," "will," "expect," "project," "estimate," "anticipate,"
    "plan," "could," "would," "likely," "intend" or "continue." All
    forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based
    on various expectations and assumptions concerning future events and
    they are subject to numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties
    which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from
    those projected. These factors include, but are not limited to:
    changes in general economic conditions and economic conditions in the
    geographic regions and industries in which we operate; the impact of
    our spin-off from First Data Corporation ("First Data"); changes in
    immigration laws, patterns and other factors related to immigrants;
    technological changes, particularly with respect to e-commerce; our
    ability to attract and retain qualified key employees; changes in
    foreign exchange rates, including the impact of foreign exchange
    spreads on money transfer transactions; adverse movements and
    volatility in debt and equity capital markets; changes in political
    conditions and related actions by the United States and abroad which
    may adversely affect the Company's businesses and economic conditions
    as a whole; continued growth in the money transfer market and other
    markets in which we operate at rates approximating recent levels;
    implementation of agent contracts according to schedule; our ability
    to maintain our agent network; interruption of United States
    government relations with countries in which the Company has or is
    implementing material agent contracts; deterioration in consumers'
    confidence in our business, or in money transfer providers generally;
    successfully managing credit and fraud risks from our agents and
    consumers; liabilities and unanticipated developments resulting from
    litigation and regulatory investigations and similar matters,
    including costs, expenses, settlements and judgments; changes in
    domestic or foreign laws, rules and regulations as well as Internal
    Revenue Service or other governmental agencies' interpretations
    thereof; changes in accounting standards, rules and interpretations;
    competing effectively in the money transfer industry with respect to
    global and niche or corridor money transfer providers, banks and other
    nonbank money transfer services providers, including
    telecommunications providers, card associations and card-based
    payments providers; our ability to grow our core businesses; our
    ability to develop and introduce new products, services and
    enhancements, and gain market acceptance of such products; our ability
    to protect our brands and our other intellectual property rights and
    to defend ourselves against potential patent infringement and other
    intellectual property claims; any material breach of security of or
    interruptions in any of our systems; mergers, acquisitions and
    integration of acquired businesses and technologies into the Company
    and the realization of anticipated synergies from these acquisitions;
    decisions to downsize, sell or close units or otherwise change the
    business mix; catastrophic events; and management's ability to manage
    these and other risks.

    WU-G

    WU-F