Western Union to Serve SMES

In a continuous effort to better serve the small business owners of America, Western Union Co. (WU) has announced a special international payments service. This facility will be provided in partnership with MasterCard Inc. (MA).

This innovative international payments service is for the small and medium enterprises. The service will be provided via Western Union’s unit called Business Solutions. The unit, which primarily provides services for small and medium enterprises, is constantly innovating and coming up with new products and services.

All the SMEs that are members of MasterCard Business Network are eligible to avail the service. The service will be particularly useful for the SMEs when other options of payments such as credit card or business card limit are not available.

Western Union is specially focused on serving the SME sector, as it constitutes the major part of the U.S. market and contributes significantly to the national income.

The company sees the SME market as an attractive growth opportunity. It expects a sizeable growth in the number of SMEs in the future, aided by the U.S. Government’s impetus to promote their establishment, to secure wealth creation and employment opportunities. Western Union thus remain focused on widening its presence and capitalizing on the opportunity offered by this market, thereby perking up its growth profile.

Western Union is also aggressively seeking to serve SMEs outside the U.S. The company has rolled out a number of services for SMEs in London, France, Germany, Ireland and Italy, Middle East and many other places around the world.

Western Union foresees a huge opportunity in the global SME market, which is comparable in size with that of the cross-border remittance market.

Another player Moneygram International Inc. (MGI) also provides service to SMEs around the world.

Western Union currently retains a Zacks #3 Rank (Hold).

Other player – Watchers International, Inc. (WTW), with Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) looks attractive.