Western Union and Liverpool Football Club Announce Money Transfer Partnership
In a move that pairs up two global powerhouses, both with long and fabled histories, Western Union Co. (NYSE:WU) has become the Official Money Transfer Partner and the first-ever Official Shirt Sleeve Sponsor of Liverpool Football Club. Western Union has been a leader in international money transfers and payment services for 160 years. In 2016, it processed over 790 million transactions for consumers and businesses across 200 countries and territories. As one of the oldest and most celebrated football clubs, Liverpool FC boasts over 700 million active followers on social and traditional media around the world.
The new partnership leverages each organization’s global reach and connectedness to mutual benefit. According to Jean-Claude Farah, President of Global Payments at Western Union, “The business of Western Union and Liverpool FC are both driven by our passion for bringing communities together…This partnership goes far beyond a badge on a shirt, as we will be bringing our digital money transfer expertise to better connect Liverpool FC fans around the world.
What is up with WhatsApp: Instant Domestic and International Money Transfers
WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned mobile messaging platform with over 200 million monthly active users, appears poised to jump on the money transfer bandwagon.
A new Beta update indicates that the popular app will soon contain bank-to-bank transfer capabilities using Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a transaction system that National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched in August 2016. In less than a year, UPI shot up from 1 million users and 21 banks to 10 million users and 50 banks. This rapid growth should only accelerate once the adoption of UPI by WhatsApp becomes official.
ApplePay to Support Facial Recognition for Identity Verification
Detective work by developers with access to the HomePod’s latest firmware supports speculation that the iPhone 8 will include facial recognition functionality and that ApplePay will verify identity by scanning a face instead of a fingerprint. Both faster and more secure than TouchID, facial recognition can authenticate a user within a few hundred milliseconds. This probable new feature bodes well for consumers and businesses who regularly depend on money transfers that are efficient and reliable. Transferwise also recently announced it would support ApplePay.
FleetCor Acquires Cambridge Global Payments for $690M
A deal that was announced in May between FleetCor Technologies Inc. (NYSE:FLT), a global juggernaut in the field of commercial payment solutions, and Cambridge Global Payments, one of the largest bank-independent providers of B2B international payment services, came to a close this week. Fleetcor purchased Cambridge for $690 million in order to establish its presence in the $145 billion B2B cross-border payments market and to increase its international revenues, which represented less than a third of total revenues, or $552 million, in 2016.
Founded 25 years ago, Cambridge was headquartered in Toronto and ran offices across North America, Europe, and Australia. It enabled SMBs and mid-cap businesses to send wire, EFT, draft and check payments in over 140 currencies. Fleetcor helps businesses in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Australia to better control, simplify and secure payment of their general payables. As a result of the acquisition, Fleetcor will now be able to process both domestic and international payments for the same client.
