Western Union 2011 Annual Report Download - page 19

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Western Union Payments. The Western Union Payments service, formerly Quick Collect®, allows consumers
to send funds to businesses and government agencies across the United States and Canada, using cash and, in
certain locations, a debit card. This service is offered primarily at Western Union agent locations, but may be
provided via our westernunion.com website in limited situations. This service is also offered in select
international locations under the service mark Quick PaySM. We also offer Quick Cash®, a cash disbursement
service used by businesses and government agencies to send money to employees or individuals with whom they
have accounts or other business relationships. Similar to our Western Union Payments service, consumers use
our Western Union Convenience Pay®(“Convenience Pay”) service to send payments by cash or check from a
smaller number of Convenience Pay agent locations primarily to utilities and telecommunication providers. We
are in the process of consolidating all of these services to be marketed as Western Union Payments.
Pago Fácil®. In South America, we offer walk-in, cash bill payment services which allow consumers to make
payments for services such as phone, utilities and other recurring bills. In Argentina, we provide this service
under the Pago Fácil brand. We offer this service under the Western Union brand in Peru and Panama.
Speedpay®. Our Speedpay service is offered principally in the United States and allows consumers to make
payments to a variety of businesses using credit cards, debit cards, ACH and in limited situations, checks.
Payments are initiated over the phone or the Internet. We also partner with some businesses to allow their
customers to access Speedpay from their websites.
Equity Accelerator. Our Equity Accelerator service enables consumers to make mortgage payments by ACH.
It is marketed as a convenient way for homeowners to schedule additional recurring principal payments on their
mortgages. Consumers who enroll in this service make mortgage payments based on an accelerated program,
which results in a more rapid reduction of their mortgage balance, as well as interest savings. We also offer a
non-recurring mortgage payment service under the brand Just in Time EFT®.
Distribution and Marketing Channels
Our electronic consumer payment services are available primarily through the phone and the Internet, while
our cash-based consumer services are available through our agent networks and select Company owned
locations. Our business payment services are offered through Company locations, phone, via the Internet and
partner channels.
Businesses market our services to consumers in a number of ways, and we market our services directly to
consumers and businesses using a variety of means, including advertising materials, promotional activities, call
campaigns and attendance at trade shows and seminars. Our Internet services are marketed to consumers and
businesses on our websites as well as through co-branding arrangements with our website partners who offer our
payment solutions.
We have relationships with more than 10,000 consumer payments businesses to which our customers can
make payments. These relationships are a core component of our global business payments services. On average,
we have provided our payment services to our top 20 businesses to which our consumers can make payments for
more than 14 years. No individual customer or business accounted for greater than 10% of this segment’s
revenue during all periods presented.
Industry Trends
The global business payments industry has evolved with technological innovations that have created new
methods of processing payments from individuals or businesses to other businesses. The various products within
the global business payments industry are in varying stages of development outside the United States. The cross-
border payments industry is expected to expand considerably in the future due to the expanding global focus of
many businesses. We believe that the United States is in the midst of a trend away from cash and paper checks
toward electronic payment methods accessible through multiple technologies.
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