- The remittance brand Western Union has reportedly sold Speedpay, with its buyer paying in cash
- Observers say that this is not a loss for Western Union because ‘divesting’ the Speedpay brand will help them to focus on their cross-border payments services
- Speedpay buyer ACI Worldwide has bought other bill payment brands across the United States and has noted in a report that they will likely be used by around 4,000 people
International money transfer brand Western Union just sold its bills payment product Speedpay to ACI Worldwide. The price tag is a whopping $750 million, according to a press release.
Known for its relatively cheap overseas transfer rates and for facilitating transactions for millions of people who transfer money internationally on a regular basis, Western Union also offers other financial services. This includes local bill payment services.
In the United States, one of WU’s most popular products is Speedpay which allows customers to pay all their bills in one place. While the product is making enough and has already created a good following, the global remittance brand decided it was time for it to go. According to reports, ACI paid for Speedpay in cash.
Western Union CEO Hikmet Ersek said that “divesting” Speedpay will allow the company to focus its resources on cross-border payments and money movement strategies. “Our strategy remains focused on expanding our digital services, leveraging our platform to unlock new cross-border, cross-currency payments opportunities, and generating additional operating efficiencies”, he added.
Western Union has been partnering with a number of companies around the world to expand its reach. The brand has thousands of agent locations around the world and is still one of the most recognisable names in the industry.
The news of the acquisition came out after ACI bought TranSend and Revchips. The two companies are “developers of terminal payment apps and management platforms”, according to a Fintech Futures report. ACI says that the combination of their bill pay solutions will serve over 4,000 people in the United States. The company will target consumer finance, mortgage payments, government-related payments, tuition fee payments for higher education, utilities, healthcare and insurance.
It was noted by ACI representatives last week that the company will merge Speedpay and UP Bill Payment to create a unified platform.
Over 15 billion bill payment transactions were recorded in the United States in the year 2018, a market that ACI wants to get a hold of. ACI believes that the bill pay market will keep growing this year and its Experts note that this is due to the availability of digital and mobile payments.
The sale hasn’t been completed though, according to reports, as it will still need to wait for regulatory approvals.
ACI has been very aggressive and it intends to keep growing, observers say. Based on its 2018 results, “bookings are up 22%” from the year 2017. Bookings were up 15% the year before. The cash flow is good and the company is making enough revenue, insiders note.
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