The Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA) is collaborating with Western Union to make cross-border payments easier.
The collaboration gives the 12,000-plus national ACTA members an opportunity to tap into Western Union’s payments expertise and knowledge of foreign currency transactions and currency risk management, according to a Western Union press release on Thursday (Aug. 8).
“We look forward to this new collaboration with ACTA, helping their members reduce costs and driving value back into the travel industry,” said Roy Farah, vice president of Canada for Western Union Business Solutions. “As one of the world’s leading providers of cross-border business payments, Western Union is transforming how businesses can expand globally through one of the largest and most diverse payment networks in the world.”
ACTA represents the retail travel sector of Canada’s tourism industry and represents more than 80 percent of the travel business booked through a Canadian travel agency.
“Western Union offers valuable business tools and consultation for our members, helping to ease the complexity of international money movement,” said Wendy Paradis, president of the association.
Western Union’s solution will make it easier for ACTA members to send, receive and manage international payments using its global network, spanning 200 countries/territories and 130 currencies.
Earlier in August, Western Union teamed with Canadian financial institution TD, enabling customers to send money cross-border from their personal TD Canada Trust accounts. TD’s Canadian customers can now use their checking, savings or line-of-credit accounts for cash pickup at any Western Union location around the world. The newly-launched money transfer service is available online with EasyWeb.
Western Union is in the midst of working with other companies to build omnichannel and global P2P offerings that combine cash and digital processes. The goal is to enable more payment options for consumers around the world. In June, it partnered with Visa to expedite the digital movement of money globally. Under the terms of the agreement, Western Union will leverage Visa Direct, the card giant’s real-time push payments platform, to offer global expedited push-to-card transfers. The goal is to scale real-time, cross-border payments across more than 200 countries and territories, and 130 currencies.