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.
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