The Innovation Project 2013 was packed with major announcements, killer quotes and special appearances from many of the biggest and brightest in payments. Yet on Day One of the conference it was Western Union that still managed to make some of the biggest news, announcing its new Global Share Platform and Reload+ networks, connecting the underserved around the world like never before.
Who is Western Union partnering with as the Global Share Platform launches, and why make the announcement at IP2013? PYMNTS.com spoke with Mike Hafer, senior vice president, global stored value at Western Union, to find out.
When Hafer first announced the partnership during the Platform Power Plays panel at IP2013, he focused on the commentary aspects of Western Union’s agreement with its six initial Global Share Platform partners: Access Prepaid Worldwide, Advent Financial, AirPak, Credencial, Jade Payments and mFunds.
Western Union will benefit because it lets them reach more consumers in new and different ways, helping to build its brand strength across the world.
“There’s going to be an account relationship that is formed with the consumer,” Hafer emphasized. “Western Union benefits form that because now we’ve created a new relationship with the consumer where they actually view Western Union to have value in their lives on a daily basis.
That consumer will have more affinity and a stronger deeper relation with WU overall.”
Conversely — and perhaps more obviously — Hafer said the benefits that client partners get from joining forced with Western Union is one of scale and distribution.
“I think at the end of the day, all of these organizations we’re working with, they could absolutely go and do this on their own without us. There’s no questions they can build the products that they’re building, they can go launch it in the marketplace and have whatever level of success they find,” he said. “But at the end of the day, just from a simplicity standpoint, the client partners believed that by working together, their overall chance for success and velocity of success is improved than if they do it on their own.”
According to Hafer, the mix of locations represented by the initial partners – from the U.S. to Central America to the U.A.E. and beyond – help reinforce that the financially underserved need access to new services all over the world. Often associated only with emerging countries, underbanked populations exist in sizable numbers in developed nations too. By announcing the Global Share Platform with six diverse companies already under wraps, Western Union is proving that the need for such a product is well established worldwide.
“We’re talking about companies in every continent all over the world. It’s literally that big of a deal for our company, it’s really a global platform and it’s one that is clearly being seen as offering value on a global basis in every corner of the world,” Hafer noted.
“It’s also exciting when you announce something new, but it’s even more exciting when you say, ‘I’ve got a new product, and guess what, I’ve already got people using the new product.’ It actually validates the business model. It validates the platform itself,” he said.
And why announce the Global Share Platform and Reload+ network at IP2013? Hafer says that while Western Union had the chance to make the announcement at other times, the symbolism that came with The Innovation Project was too great to pass up.
“When we heard a little more about The Innovation Project specifically as an event, it became very clear to us that when you have 500 people, invite only the best of the best of the payments world together, and you put it in a place like Harvard and it’s framed up around the idea of innovation … it’s the perfect place to announce something like this,” Hafer said.
“Everything was pointing to this as the perfect event because to m, the Innovation Project event embodied exactly what we’re announcing today.”
To read more about Western Union’s Global Share Platform and Reload+ network, click here.
Mike Hafer, Senior Vice President, Global Stored Value Western Union
Mike Hafer currently serves as Senior Vice President, Global Stored Value. In this role, Mike leads a global team that develops and manages Western Union’s award-winning stored-value offerings. These customer accounts are available in a variety of forms, including prepaid cards, mobile phones and the Internet. With multiple programs live in 9 countries across 4 continents serving diverse customer needs, the Global Prepaid organization under Mike’s leadership is developing deeper Western Union customer relationships while delivering strong revenue growth.
Prior to his current role, Mike led product development for the company’s domestic money-movement business with focus on new growth arenas including prepaid and financial institutions. During Mike’s 10-year tenure at Western Union, he also led the U.S. CRM group and was responsible for the development and rollout of Western Union’s industry-leading Gold Card rewards program.
Prior to working at Western Union, Mike held multiple B2C and B2B marketing and product management roles for US West, The Signature Group and Izodia.
Mike attended Northwestern University, where he earned a Master of Science degree in Integrated Marketing Communications with an emphasis in Direct/Database Marketing. Mike also attended the University of Northern Colorado and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Business with an emphasis in Marketing. Mike also has served as an adjunct professor at Denver University, teaching various graduate-level marketing classes.
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