Western Union 2009 Annual Report Download - page 17

ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Overview
The Western Union Company (“Western Union” or the “Company”) is a leader in global money transfer
and payment services, providing people and businesses with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send money
and make payments around the world.
The Western Union»brand is globally recognized and represents speed, reliability, trust and convenience.
As people move and travel around the world, they are able to use the services of a well recognized brand to
transfer funds. Our consumer-to-consumer money transfer service enables people to send money around the
world in minutes. Our services are available through a network of over 410,000 agent locations in more than
200 countries and territories, with approximately 85% of those locations outside of the United States. Each
location in our agent network is capable of providing one or more of our services, with the majority offering
Western Union branded service. As of December 31, 2009, over 75% of our locations had experienced money
transfer activity in the prior 12 months.
Our global business payments service provides consumers and businesses with flexible and convenient
options for making one-time or recurring bill payments. In the third quarter of 2009, we acquired Custom
House, Ltd. (“Custom House”), a provider of international business-to-business cross-border, cross-currency
payment services. Although most of the revenue in our global business payments segment is generated in the
United States, we continue to expand our international presence and globally diversify our revenue, primarily
through our acquisition of Custom House and our previous acquisition of Pago Fácil.
We believe that brand strength, size and reach of our global network, and convenience and reliability for
our customers have been important factors relating to the growth of our business. As we continue to meet the
needs of our customers for fast, reliable and convenient money transfer services, we are also working to
enhance our services and provide our consumer and business clients with access to an expanding portfolio of
payment and other financial services, including Visa»and Mastercard»prepaid debit card offerings.
The majority of our revenue comes from fees that consumers pay when they send money or make
payments. In certain money transfer and payment services transactions involving different send and receive
currencies, we generate revenue based on the difference between the exchange rate set by us to the consumer
or business and the rate at which we or our agents are able to acquire currency.
Our Segments
We manage our business around the customers we serve and the type of services we offer. Each segment
addresses a different combination of customer needs, distribution networks and services. Our segments are
consumer-to-consumer and global business payments. Our other businesses not included in these segments
primarily consist of Western Union branded money order services available through a network of third-party
agents primarily in the United States and Canada.
The table below presents the components of our consolidated revenue:
2009 2008 2007
Consumer-to-consumer (a)
EMEASA (b)................................................ 45% 44% 40%
Americas (c) ................................................ 32% 34% 37%
APAC(d) .................................................. 8% 7% 6%
Total consumer-to-consumer ...................................... 85% 85% 83%
Global business payments . . ...................................... 14% 14% 15%
Other ....................................................... 1% 1% 2%
100% 100% 100%
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