Every day, Western Union strives to improve the financial lives of customers and communities around the world. We enable people to send and receive money to more than 200 countries and territories in more than 130 currencies.
On a micro scale, the money we help move pays rent, buys medicine, enables education, and supports small businesses. On a macro scale, it offers indispensable support to communities and economies, and powers global trade. During today’s challenging times— with accelerating inflation, looming food shortages, and armed conflict—our services are a critical lifeline for many communities.
Being a vital link across economies, geographies, and cultures comes with great responsibility and opportunity. Reflecting on our recently launched Western Union 2021 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report , we hope it’s evident that we take our responsibility to serve seriously. Our ESG strategy is focused on efforts and areas where we can make meaningful impact: furthering economic prosperity; advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); and promoting the integrity of global money movement.
We aspire to positively impact millions of people everywhere.
Furthering Economic Prosperity
Through money transfer and payment solutions , we help people realize their potential and ambitions as they provide support to their loved ones. Our trusted global retail presence enables us to serve underserved communities that other financial institutions may not reach, connecting our diverse global customer base to one another and the global economy.
Our inclusive approach allows us to reach and serve a broad range of consumers, including those in rural or remote communities with limited digital infrastructure, people who encounter difficulties using digital services, and those who prefer cash. Digital capabilities and partnerships are helping us connect more people to our services. Westernunion.com is now available in over 75 countries and the Western Union app is active in more than 55 countries.
Supporting Migrants and Refugees
Together with the Western Union Foundation, we have a long history of supporting issues related to migrants and refugees, who are an important part of our customer base, workforce, and communities. We engage on key issues related to migrants and refugees with a number of leading organizations, and are working with the Fletcher School at Tufts University in the U.S. to explore where economic opportunity, skills shortages, and a sociopolitical openness to migration will intersect.
Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
As a global company, DEI is central to who we are, and it’s an important driver of our innovation and performance. We strive to bring more diverse candidates into our organization while creating a culture of inclusion and belonging to ensure they stay, grow, and thrive.
In 2021, our estimated 10,500 employees represented more than 120 countries and speak 54 different languages. As we look toward 2025, we aim to increase our gender diversity in leadership and increase our racial and ethnic diversity among employees.
Our commitment to DEI also includes equal pay for equal work. In 2021, we achieved gender pay equity globally and racial/ethnicity pay equity in the U.S.
Promoting the Integrity of Global Money Movement
Our customers, partners, and communities depend on our reliable and trustworthy cross-border money movement. While third-party data shows the rate of fraudulent activity across the financial industry is increasing, fraud levels at Western Union are trending downward due to enhanced compliance capabilities and technological and infrastructure investments. From 2020 to 2021, our reported consumer fraud globally decreased by 10% and we prevented approximately $1.9 billion in fraudulent transactions.
Climate Change
We recognize climate change is one of the most significant challenges facing the world today. In 2021, we took significant steps to better understand our footprint and the risks and opportunities that climate change may pose to our business, including measuring our Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG). Although we are still in the early phase of our climate journey, we look forward to increasing efforts to reduce our operational GHG emissions, contributing to a more efficient, productive and healthy planet.
A Look Ahead
While pleased with our ESG progress, we are inspired to do more. We are working to help customers and their families accelerate up the economic ladder and support them every step of the way. When we make our technology and resources available to more people, our company grows, and we increase benefits to the people and communities we serve.
Read more about our progress in our Western Union 2021 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report.
