NYTimes.com
Moving Money, Not Telegrams, Across Borders
Saturday June 7, 1:35 am ET
By EVE TAHMINCIOGLU


MENTION the name Western Union and most people probably think of one thing: telegrams. But the company sent its last dispatch in 2006.
Christina A. Gold, the chief executive of the Western Union Company, based in Englewood, Colo., is trying to change that perception. She recently began a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign, to include television advertising later this year, to let people in the United States know that the 157-year-old company is now all about transferring money.


The company has long been in the money transfer business, and had nearly $5 billion in sales last year, mainly from migrant workers sending money home to their families. But it is now trying to reach out to people who may not have used its services before.

Some critics of the company have complained about its fees, and others have accused it of profiting from, and even promoting, illegal immigration. Ms. Gold makes no excuses for the company’s success. Here are excerpts from a recent conversation:

Q. Why do you think Western Union’s business is growing at a time when the financial sector is struggling?

A. We are in 200 countries and we can balance off different markets. We felt some of that in the United States in 2007 and late 2006 partly because of immigration issues and fewer jobs in the housing industry. Our customers were holding back in sending money home, keeping a cushion in case they had to go back. But now we’re seeing nice improvements in our Mexico and United States business.

As we look at our customers, they are people on the move and need to earn money so they can remit it back to families in China or India. We have very unique and global consumers.

Q. How does the company get away from the telegram image and start getting consumers in the United States, not just migrant workers, thinking about Western Union when they want to remit payments?

A. People focus on the telegram. But what we always did and do is connect people, whether it was with a message or with money. We are engaged in an effort looking at our brand and where we want to take it in the United States.

The message we’re working on to get out there is our remittance business and also our emergency send. Where do you go at 10 at night if your car breaks down and you need money? It’s Western Union.

The other thing we’re looking at, with younger consumers, is how you become more relevant. We’re testing mobile money transfers. It’s called M-Wallet. We partnered with RadioShack and Trumpet Mobile to offer prepaid Trumpet Mobile phones, now sold in 4,300 RadioShack locations in the United States.

Q. What is Western Union’s role, as you see it, in global migration?

A. It’s amazing, when you see what’s happened, 200 million people today who live in countries other than the country of their birth. We monitor 15,000 to 20,000 corridors, and we connect the migrants of the world as they move and want to send money back home.

Now, 65 percent of our business is not in the United States. If you look at our business six years ago, we had 100,000 locations; now we have 345,000 globally. We’re talking about people in China, southern India. They are going to the Middle East to work to feed their families.

If you look at the whole industry, there are four huge markets that receive money. The largest is India, China is No. 2, No. 3 is Mexico and 4 is the Philippines.

Q. Given the debate over illegal immigrants in this country, do you have mixed feelings about so many migrant workers using the Western Union service?

A. I think you have to look around the world. I came from another country. I was brought up in Canada. My parents came to Canada from Holland after the Second World War. It’s not easy when you go to a different country.

We are not saying one is right or one is wrong, but there needs to be some finalization on immigration policy in the United States. Q. Western Union has come under fire for supposedly charging too much, especially for low-wage migrant workers. What do you say to those critics?

A. I don’t see it that way. Our customers are smart and very savvy. They check the rates every day. They have their choices. We’re highly competitive. The industry is growing at an 8 percent rate a year. We’re growing by 20 percent. Customers are choosing.


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