Western Union is one of the leading companies on the international money transfers market

Throwback Thursday: how Western Union evolved from telegraph to API. Source: shutterstock.com

Today PaySpace Magazine would like to tell you about The Western Union Company. It is an American company that provides financial services, specializes in peer-to-peer money transfers and business payments. Western Union is one of the leading companies on the international money transfers market, which operates in 200 countries, 130 currencies, has more than 150M customers and 11,500 employees. Did you know that initially, this firm provided telegraph and communication services?

Interesting facts about Western Union

• The company is able to handle 31 transactions each second. In 2015, Western Union handled approximately 31 operations per second.
• WU introduced the first U.S. commercial satellite.?In far 1974, Western Union made history by bringing the U.S. the very first commercial satellite.
• The company strives for gender equality.?No less than 20% of the company’s board members are female. Apparently, it is still far from the cherished 50/50 split, but this number considerably surpasses gender balance rate of many other financial companies.
• WU created the first singing telegram.?Since the Western Union was initially a telegraph company, it delivered telegrams. Moreover, the company was responsible for delivering the first singing telegram in the world in 1933.
• The company has more than 100,000 ATMs.?The company truly has installed no less than 100,000 ATMs. That’s why they claim that their clients can send or receive funds almost anywhere in the world.
• The WU Foundation donated more than $100M.?The WU Foundation made charitable donations of more than $104M in no less than 130 countries.

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