Western Union 2007 Annual Report Download - page 3

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What I fi nd even more exciting is the potential for
growth in the future. The age of globalization — one
of unprecedented mobility and economic opportu-
nity for people all around the world — is still in
its infancy.
The World Bank estimates that there are currently
nearly 200 million people living outside their country
of origin, many of them economic migrants. In 2007,
the Aite Group estimated that $369 billion in remit-
tances was sent to towns and villages across the
world. And the amount of principal remitted around
the globe continues to grow on average 8% annually.
Western Union is taking the lead in meeting the
fi nancial service needs of this migrant population.
We are seizing this opportunity to strengthen the
core of our business, to provide a strong customer
experience, to expand our service offerings and to
drive innovation for the future.
More global than ever before
Making the right moves is about identifying and act-
ing on opportunities for growth. We work to supply
our customers with the services they need exactly
where they need them and focus our investments
where the greatest opportunities exist. This means
our business has a global reach with local depth.
Through investments in increasing brand aware-
ness and expanding physical distribution around
the world we have capitalized on the vast global
opportunities. As a result, in 2007, international
consumer-to-consumer revenue was 65% of total
Western Union revenue, up from 50% in 2002. We
fi nished 2007 with more than 335,000 agent loca-
tions in more than 200 countries and territories.
This expansive footprint ensures geographically
diverse revenue streams. In fact, 51% of our total
revenue in 2007 was generated from transactions
originating outside the United States. We have
made signifi cant investments in the top four remit-
tance receive markets — India, China, Mexico and
the Philippines — which represent $95 billion in
remittances. We more than tripled our number of
agent locations in these countries since 2002. In
India, revenue and transactions grew 44% and 75%,
respectively, in 2007. In China those fi gures were
37% and 25%, respectively. In 2007, these two coun-
tries represented just 5% of Western Union’s annual
revenue. We are confi dent that there is tremendous
opportunity for more growth in 2008 and beyond.
Consumer-to-consumer money transfer is the
fastest growing of all our offered services, most
especially the international consumer-to-consumer
business. Our top priority for 2008 is to grow this
business even more by continuing to invest in the
brand, and by adding 25,000 more agent
locations worldwide.
Christina A. Gold
PRESIDENT AND CEO
The Western Union Company
This has been a landmark year for
Western Union. I’m proud of what we’ve
accomplished and the value we’ve added.
Dear Fellow Shareholders,