Western Union Teams With TrueMoney To Enable Money Transfers To Philippines

Western Union has signed a deal with TrueMoney, a Philippines financial services provider, the global cross-currency money mover and payments company announced on Tuesday (July 21).

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The collaboration will allow customers to get cash at select TrueMoney locations identified by Western Union signs. The service will eventually be available at more than 5,000 locations in the Philippines.

“At Western Union, we are committed to doing everything we can to serve our customers and communities, here in the Philippines and across the world,” said Jeffrey Navarro, Western Union’s head of network, in a statement. “We are continuously adapting our operations and business to offer customers the best service and experience … the launch of our service with TrueMoney enables customers to now access money transfer services at more locations across the country.”

TrueMoney, which operates under the Ascend Money name, is a joint venture of the C.P. Group and Ant Financial. It has more than 70,000 financial services locations in Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

“With the speed at which things are changing around us, we are dedicated to [serving] our customers [and] facilitating reliable and convenient money transfers for them,” said Eugene Go, CEO of TrueMoney. “Money movement is essential – often, livelihoods and financial survival are directly linked to it.”

Last year, the Washington, D.C.-based World Bank Group, whose mission is to provide financial and technical assistance to developing countries, reported that at $34 billion, the Philippines was the fourth-largest remittance recipient country.

Last month, Western Union said transactions fell by 30 percent at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic in March and April, but its May digital business set a 10-year record high. The Denver-based company said digital money transactions fell by 50 percent in early April and 77 percent for the month. But in May, those transactions increased by 99 percent.

Also, earlier this year, Western Union announced that it had expanded its global network for real-time payments and transfers to 50 more countries when paid into certain banks and digital wallets.

Hikmet Ersek, president and CEO of Western Union, said the company has boosted its expansion of its digital money transfer capabilities, which is especially important given the critical nature of money movement during the COVID-19 pandemic.