Western Union: the end of permanent leadership in cross-border consumer money transfers
“… long, sorry decline has left the 140-year-old company a shell of its former self. Today, it is fighting for its very survival. Western Union fell victim to technological advances…”
Associated Press, 1991
Reading current reporting about Western Union’s role in international remittances could make us think that the company has been a successful monopoly of this space forever, but, now, with the arrival of some disruptive innovation (“P2P”, “Bitcoin-blockchain”, “Social”, “Mobile”…), there is a real danger of its imminent demise. In reality, Western Union’s subsidiary, Western Union Financial Services Inc., began providing international money transfers in the mid-80s when deregulation allowed a previously domestic service to expand internationally. By the mid-90s, Western Union’s coverage included major remittance destinations like China. In those first ten years of its money transfer business, Western Union (renamed “New Valley” in 1991) had plenty of upheavals going near or into bankruptcy. After changing hands a few times, the money transfer subsidiary was resurrected as an independent entity in 2006. Western Union’s stock performance has been highly volatile ever since dwarfed by the overall market:
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