Western Union’s Cross-Border Tools Diversify

As the European Union looks toward new ways to facilitate cross-border payments, Western Union is working on its own service to strengthen international commerce. The company announced Wednesday (April 15) that it will launch a new partnership in the U.K. to boost its cross-border payments processing services and combine them with the expense reporting and invoice management efforts of Chrome River.

The partnership between Western Union Business Solutions and Chrome River will bring suppliers working with Chrome River a new outlet to manage foreign currency exchanges and more easily send and receive foreign payments. For business customers of Western Union in the U.K., they will have access to new Software-as-a-Service expense reporting and invoice management solutions to strengthen their cash flow visibility.

Western Union and Chrome River had partnered before to bring similar services to the U.S., which launched last June. “Our relationship with Western Union Business Solutions is part of our strategy to ensure that customers can solve their international payment requirements smoothly and efficiently,” Chrome River said in a statement.

The European Union is in the midst of reforms aimed at establishing a single EU economic market, though developing solutions for cross-border payment processing is one of the largest hurdles lawmakers will have to overcome. Payments firms like Western Union are working to overcome these challenges themselves.

Another firm, U.K.-based Ipagoo, revealed earlier this year that it has launched a virtual bank account service for EU customers that streamlines cross-border money transfers.