Western Union will begin offering its digital wallet in Latin America in the first half 2023, beginning with a launch in Brazil enabled by the company’s acquisition of the country’s Te Enviei digital wallet provider.
With the purchase of Te Enviei and the rollout of more services in Brazil, customers there will be able to use their mobile phones to store money; send money domestically and internationally; and pay bills, according to a Monday (Sept. 12) press release.
“We are changing the way we interact with our customers today, moving from a transactional business to a customer-centric, relationship-based approach,” Western Union Chief Innovation and Data Officer Thomas Mazzaferro said in the release. “… We believe this acquisition will allow us to significantly accelerate our planned technology build, allowing for the faster roll out of our digital wallet in Brazil.”
PYMNTS research showed Brazilians also use their mobile phones for shopping. “The 2022 Global Digital Shopping Playbook: Brazil Edition,” a PYMNTS and Cybersource collaboration, found that more than half of all Brazilian shoppers used their smartphones to make their most recent retail purchases. Some used them to order via app, others to paid via mobile wallet and others located products in brick-and-mortar stores.
In August, Western Union announced it was expanding its integration with Visa’s Visa Direct money-moving network.
Read more: Western Union Expands Integration With Visa Direct
The arrangement makes it easy for customers in the United States to send money in real time, or nearly real time, to holders of debit cards in Colombia, El Salvador, Jamaica, the Philippines, Romania and Thailand.
“Western Union and Visa share a vision for modern money movement, one that ensures cross-border payments are reliable, efficient and transparent, with convenience and the customer’s channel of choice at the center of our customer experience,” said Western Union President of the Americas Gabriella Fitzgerald in a press release at the time.
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