Western Union (WU) Partners With Coins.ph To Serve Filipinos

The Western Union Co. (NYSE:WU) has collaborated with Coins.ph, one of the Philippines' leading e-wallet providers.

The pact will allow more than five million customers to receive money transfers directly into their Coins.ph wallets in the Philippines.

Customers will be able to transfer money in more than 60 countries having Western Union’s digital service and in more 200 countries and territories having its retail network.

The integration of blockchain technology of Coins.ph and vast agent network of Western Union will provide good remittance services to customers.

Coins.ph is a perfect partner for Western Union as the former has more than five million wallet holders in the Philippines, thus providing with a ready customer base.

This deal will provide an attractive market for Western Union since an estimated 10 million Filipino workers reside overseas, creating huge demand for money transfer service. According to the World Bank’s Migration and Remittances Brief, the Philippines is one of the top remittance receiving countries in the world. Western Union has been providing money transfer services in the Philippines since 1990 and has more than 12,000 Agent locations in the country. Another money transfer company MoneyGram International Inc. (MGI) also provides its remittance services in the country.

A day ago, Western Union announced its tie up with Dollar General Corporation (NYSE:DG) , a chain of variety stores, which will enable money transfer at more than 15,400 locations throughout the 44 states in which Dollar General operates.

Customers will be able to initiate international and domestic money transfers through the Western Union mobile app or by visiting westernunion.com. The funds can then be paid in person at Dollar General locations. Consumers can also receive transferred amount at Dollar General stores.

Since 75% of the American population lives within a five-mile radius of a Dollar General, this tie-up will provide a vast and ready customer base for Western Union.

These tie ups and partnerships are in line with the company’s efforts to grow its market share amid rising competition from many fintech companies that have entered the payments space in recent years.

The company is also streamlining its operations and have entered into an agreement to sell off its SpeedPay business, the proceeds from which will be utilized to return capital to its shareholders and manage its capital structure.

The company’s revenues have been under pressure. High compliance costs and foreign exchange volatility have further taken a toll on its stock price which has declined 0.3% in a year’s time against the industry’s growth of 24%.

Western Union carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Some better-ranked stock in the same space are Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (NYSE:FIS) and Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) .

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Fidelity National Information works as a financial services technology company worldwide. It sports a Zacks Rank #1. The company managed to deliver earnings beat in all the trailing four quarters at average of 2.72%.

Euronet provides payment and transaction processing and distribution solutions worldwide. It has a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy). The stock pulled off average four-quarter beat of 2.68%.

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