Western Union expands in Cuba
KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Western Union (WU) company, a global payments services provider, announced today that it will launch remittance services from across the world into Cuba following United States regulatory and policy changes that allow Cubans and non-Cubans to send remittances via Western Union to the island.
Cubans currently reside in as many as 72 countries worldwide, WU stated.
Cash remittances to Cuba in 2013 reached US$2.8 billion with 90 per cent originating from the US. Remittances reach 62 per cent of Cuban households, sustain about 90 per cent of the retail market and provide thousands of jobs, the company said in a release on its new direct service on Monday.
For the first time, Cubans and other citizens worldwide will join their US counterparts to send remittances into Cuba using Western Union’s cross-border payments platform.
People from the US have had the opportunity to send money to Cuba since 1999, but just from the US. In a couple of weeks, any citizen of the world will be able to do it too, which means a great opportunity for Cubans with relatives in Caribbean, Latin Aamerican, European, and Asian countries.
Since 1999, Western Union has built a network of 490 agencies all over the country, so people will be able to send money to every municipality of Cuba, not only to the main cities.
The company expects to activate the new-style service in a phased approach by end of second quarter 2016, the release said.
As of December 31, 2015, Western Union and its associated Vigo and Orlandi Valuta-branded services were offered through a combined network of more than 500,000 agent locations in 200 countries and territories and over 100,000 ATMs and kiosks, and included the capability to send money to over a billion accounts, the company stated.
“As the first US company with scale to move money from across the world to Cuba, we welcome the regulatory and policy changes put in place by the US Government that allow us to offer these services,” said Odilon Almeida, President of the Americas and European Union.
Avia Collinder
