Western Union, JD Digits Eye Biz Payments With X-Border Partnership

Western Union has announced a partnership with Chinese digital payments company JD Digits, which will advance digital cross-border money movement and payments in China.

The two companies will explore new ways to combine online and mobile financial technology (FinTech) services for quick and convenient cross-border payments and remittances. In the first phase, they will focus on moving global remittances into the mobile wallets and bank accounts of 400 million JD Digits customers.

Last year, Western Union’s cross-border, cross-currency platform processed an average of 32 transactions every second, and moved $300 billion across 130 currencies.

“Western Union’s money movement platform has set the standard for international digital and physical money movement by connecting almost every country and territory in the world. It allows us to effectively span consumer money movement and business payments globally, while staying ahead of FinTech advancement. It is this unrivaled capability that is attracting new forms of collaboration, but the finer point is our ability to uniquely connect the digital and physical worlds of money in any configuration to suit the ultimate end user,” said Khalid Fellahi, senior vice president and general manager of Western Union Digital Ventures, in a press release.

According to Molly Shea, general manager of Western Union Asia-Pacific, “We are delighted to be teaming up with JD Digits, one of China’s most innovative digital technology companies, to serve tech-savvy Chinese customers. This agreement ushers in a new era for our more than 23-year-old relationship with China.”

Formerly known as JD Finance, JD Digits aims to connect finance and real industry through digital technology, as well as boost the digital and intelligent development of industries, and support the development of the real economy.

“JD Digits is accelerating all efforts in developing digital technology to make people’s lives better. The collaboration with Western Union, a global leader in money movement, is another great example on how we transform the way that customers can transfer money or make payments quickly and easily,” said Xu Ling, head of customers service unit and vice president of JD Digits.