Western Union Receives National Award by Government of India for Advancement of Financial Inclusion in India

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a global leader in money transfer services,won the National Award on e-Governance 2015-16 in India under the category “Use of ICT for Development by Non-Government Institutions” for their collaboration with India Post.

This award recognizes the role that Western Union has played in collaborationwith India Post, in enabling consumers in the remote parts of India to receive remittances seamlessly. The collaboration has not only enabled fast, convenient, reliable financial access to millions of people across India, but has also helped the world’s largest diaspora stay connected with their loved ones. Consumers are able to receive their money at 9,942 post offices of India Post from Western Union’s 500,000 locations & over 100,000 ATM’s and Kiosks spread across 200 countries around the world.

Western Union’s goal of facilitating financial inclusion and reaching out to the masses made India Post the ideal choice for International remittances services.Western Union has over 113,000* locations across India in over 6,000 towns or villages which is more than the aggregated bank branch network in India.This network has further supported the growth of remittances in India from $2.1 billlion in early 1990’s to over $70 billion in 2014.

Mr. Kiran Shetty, Managing Director and Regional Vice President, Western Union India, while receiving the award said,“Western Union’s collaboration with India Post, the world’s largest postal network, is a good example of a public private partnership that plays a crucial role in the advancement of financial inclusion in India. Western Union’s ability to provide money in minutes from across the globe to the remote part of our country has also greatly allowed the formal remittances industry to grow in India.It is impressive to note that remittances are three times the size of FDI investment in the country and also contributes 4% to the Indian GDP, in the year 2014.”

Mr. L. N. Sharma, Deputy Directors General (Financial Services), India Post said; “We are happy to have collaborated with Western Union for over 15 years. This alliance and the technologies developed havehelped createa conducive financial eco-system and a positive impact on the lives of many Indians.”

Globally, Western Union has been associated with around 100 Postal Organizations, predominantly offering money transfer services to rural and interior areas. Across South Asia, Post Offices in general and Post Masters in particular serve an important role in connectingvillagers and community elders. Consequently, financial services offered through Post Offices are well regarded among consumers who frequently visit these locations.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remittances_to_India

Western Union

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a leader in global payment services. Together with its Vigo, OrlandiValuta, Pago Facil and Western Union Business Solutions branded payment services, Western Union provides consumers and businesses with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send and receive money around the world, to send payments and to purchase money orders. As of September 30, 2015, the Western Union, Vigo and OrlandiValuta branded services were offered through a combined network of over 500,000 agent locations in 200 countries and territories and over 100,000 ATMs and kiosks. In 2014, The Western Union Company completed 255 million consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, moving $85billion of principal between consumers, and 484 million business payments. For moreinformation, visit www.westernunion.com.

India Post

For more than 150 years, the India Posthas been the backbone of the country’s communication and has played a crucial role in the country’s socio-economic development. It touches the lives of Indian citizens in many ways: delivering mails, accepting deposits under Small Savings Schemes, providing life insurance cover under Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) and providing retail services like Foreign Mails Management, International Money Remittances, National Pension Plans, Sale of Mutual Funds, bill collection, sale of forms, etc. The India Post also acts as an agent for Government of India in discharging other services for citizens such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) wage disbursement and old age pension payments. With 1, 55,015 Post Offices, the India Post has the most widely distributed postal network in the world. In order to provide the best-in-class customer service, deliver new services and improve operational efficiencies, the India Post has undertaken an end to end IT modernization project to equip itself with requisite modern tools and technologies. This Project will enable our organization to get 25000+ computerized Post Offices CBS driven and the other rural Post Offices connected through technology throughout the country in the coming years. The ATMs at 1000 locations will also be functional in the coming months. For moreinformation, visit http://www.indiapost.gov.in