Western Union extends its relationship with La Banque Postale

The Western Union Company announced that it has renewed its relationship with La Banque Postale. The new agreement will enable Western Union to pursue a successful business strategy as it continues to create rich opportunities by strengthening the Western Union brand and its relationships with Agents.

With approximately 29 million customers, La Banque Postale operates one of France's largest financial services networks. They have a bank license that allows them to offer a wide range of financial services. In October 2006, Western Union and La Banque Postale celebrated 10 years of working together. The agreement with La Banque Postale promises to increase Western Union's reach throughout France. Presently, Western Union and its agents operate more than 3,000 locations across France, and customers carry out millions of Western Union Money Transfers annually with La Banque Postale.

Both organizations also manage a successful joint venture "La Societe Financiere de Paiements" (SFdP) which, along with its correspondents, manages a network of 46 branches located in France's major cities. This joint venture was created in 2003 to complement the Western Union service offering within La Banque Postale and endeavor to meet the wide-ranging needs of customers — primarily immigrants who have left home to seek a better life in France and who continue to send money home to the families they have left behind. These remittances provide support for everyday necessities like education, food and health.

Establishing the joint venture has enabled Western Union to extend opening hours, merchandise and brand stores to increase visibility and focus on training employees solely on money transfer services. Many of SFdP's employees are from varying ethnic backgrounds and have multi-language skills. SFdP branches offer a personalized service with staff, speaking Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Urdu and Turkish, among other languages, as customers are primarily from Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa, notably Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Cameroon and Ivory Coast, but also from China, Haiti, Turkey and Brazil.
La Societe Financiere de Paiements is continuing to grow, particularly through the creation of commercial relationships with new banking partners like the WAFA Bank and Banque Accord. In February 2006, Travelex Banque signed an agreement with La Societe Financiere de Paiements to offer Western Union services in 24 of their branches.

The joint venture's latest coup was acquiring five dedicated Agent locations from CPR Billets, a subsidiary from the Tessi group. These locations had already been offering the Western Union (R) Money Transfer service, and their employees are well trained in the money transfer sector. They are from diverse ethnic backgrounds and have lots of experience with understanding Western Union consumers. These newly bought dedicated Agent locations have already been recognized as "Flagship" stores.

Hikmet Ersek, Vice President and Managing Director Western Union, Europe, Middle East, Africa and South Asia, said, "Western Union is one of the leading providers of money transfer services in the world. We provide our customers with a valuable service. We continue to grow by increasing our Agent network, and we are constantly striving towards attaining complete customer satisfaction. The extension of our agreement with La Banque Postale truly helps us to expand the Western Union services throughout France."
About Western Union

Western Union, together with its affiliates Orlandi Valuta and Vigo, is a leading provider of global money transfer services, providing people with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send money around the world, pay bills and purchase money orders through a network of approximately 300,000 Agent locations in over 200 countries and territories. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.

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SOURCE: The Western Union Company
The Western Union Company

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