Industry analyst firm Celent recognizes Western Union with a “Model Bank” award for its Mobile Money Transfer service and its remittance transaction processing services for Mobile Network Operators and Banking partners.

Each year, industry analyst firm Celent recognizes effective technology use in banking with its “Model Bank” awards.   This year, Celent gave out just 16 awards at its “2009 Banking Innovation and Insight Day” on June 3, 2009, in New York City.  Western Union was among the selected financial institutions to be nominated for an award, and the only non-bank to win one.  Matt Dill, Senior Vice President of Western Union’s Digital Ventures group, accepted the award on behalf of Western Union. 

The Celent awards are given each year to companies delivering products, services and operational components in a form that best fits a “Model Bank.”   Awards are given to financial institutions with the best answers to the question “What would it look like for a bank to do everything right with today’s technology?”

Western Union was honored in the “Transaction Processing” category, which rates key elements like payment initiation, rich remittance linked to payments, rules-based engines and platform modernization. The award was based on Western Union’s successful implementation and technological integration of its Mobile Money Transfer Service around the world.

Mobile-Financial.com recently spoke with Mr. Dill to find out what the Model Bank Award means to Western Union.   He felt that “the Model Bank Award recognized Western Union’s efforts in Mobile Money Transfer as a transactional service.   I think that they (Celent) very rightly observed, in the context of a program recognizing banks, Western Union as a transactional offering that is a value-added service to banks and could be an innovative new product.”  

In addition, Mr. Dill communicated that “We are honored, first for the recognition from a respected analyst group, and second for the environment that we were recognized in; a banking environment, which is not traditionally an environment where Western Union would be called to the forefront.  I think the award shows how the work we are doing in new channels has the potential to evolve what our business is and how our business is used by consumers around the world.”

Western Union’s Mobile Money Transfer service provides customers with the ability to send and receive money using their mobile phones.   Banks and Mobile Network Operators provide this service to end customers through integration with Western Union’s Mobile Money Transfer Gateway.  This integration allows remitted funds to be directed to an intended recipient’s mobile account or physically collected by the recipient at one of the 379,000 Western Union agent locations around the world.

Western Union established its Mobile Money Transfer Service in coordination with the GSM Association in January 2008. This service couples the ubiquity of mobile devices with Western Union’s core money transfer service and international remittance network. 
The service allows users to send funds in cash from select Western Union Agent locations in the U.S., the UAE, Singapore, and Hong Kong to a mobile phone “wallet” (an account  tied to the mobile phone) of a Globe Telecom or Smart Communications subscriber in the Philippines.

Western Union has integrated its Agents as partners on the send side throughout the world (the U.S., the UK, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region), as well as partnered with two mobile operators in the Philippines. The company also has signed agreements with several other mobile operators, including Orascom Telecom in the Middle East and Vodafone/Safaricom in the U.K./Kenya. 

In addition, in the coming months, Western Union plans to extend the service to allow users to send funds from their mobile wallets for payout in cash at a Western Union Agent location, or from their mobile wallet to another mobile wallet. Western Union, in turn, aids the partnering mobile operators in accessing Western Union’s Global Agent network in 200 countries.

With Western Union’s global expansion of its Mobile Money Transfer service for both Banks and Mobile Network Operators, the company looks set to continue winning Model Bank awards for years to come.

About Western Union

Western Union is a leading global money transfer company. Last year the company moved $67 billion through its systems. Western Union focuses on moving value primarily from developed countries into developing countries, and the Western Union brand enjoys over 90% brand recognition globally among the world’s migrants. Other key assets are their central global system for processing transactions and a global agent network for cash in and cash out, consisting of 379,000 locations in over 200 countries and territories – that’s five times the total worldwide locations of McDonald’s, Starbucks, Citibank and Wal-Mart combined.