Western Union 2014 Annual Report Download - page 3

DEAR FELLOW
SHAREHOLDERS,
For Western Union, 2014 was a year o
f
continuing tran
s
-
f
ormation. It was a year o
f
evolving nearly every
f
acet o
f
our
b
us
i
ness—our tec
h
no
l
ogy, our serv
i
ces, our processes an
d
our
p
eo
p
le.
And althou
g
h transformation takes time, I’m
p
roud to sa
y
that
we are successfull
y
ada
p
tin
g
our business to focus on electronic
methods for movin
g
mone
y
, on
p
rovidin
g
services for small- and
medium-sized enter
p
rises with unmet needs, and on investin
g
in a variet
y
of initiatives to build our com
p
liance
p
ro
g
rams
.
“We continue to be a global leader in
cross-border, cross-currency money transfers
for consumers and businesses.”
O
verall, we are pleased with our 2014 results. We returned to
r
evenue growth in the consumer money trans
f
er business,
f
urther expanded our online and account-based money trans
f
er
ca
p
abilities, and exceeded our ex
p
ectations for
p
rofitabilit
y
and
earnin
g
s
p
er share in 2014
.
We continue to be a
g
lobal leader in cross-border, cross
-
currenc
y
mone
y
transfers for consumers and businesses.
Evolving to Better
S
uit
C
ustomer Need
s
All o
f
the changes we’ve made and will make are in direct
r
esponse to the needs o
f
our customers. Not only are we tran
s
-
f
orming internally—we are trans
f
orming our relationships with
our customers,
f
orging a deep understanding o
f
their needs.
We are soliciting
f
eedback
f
rom our customers
f
or just this
purpose, conducting 12,000 interviews in 17 countries to under
-
r
stand how we can improve.
O
ur key leaders are implementing
c
h
anges t
h
at we
h
ope w
ill
meet our customers
’
nee
d
s
.
W
estern
U
n
i
on
h
as a
l
ong
h
er
i
tage, an
d
we
’
ve a
l
ways
b
een a
bi
t
di
ff
erent than other companies. We serve di
ff
erent customers
than traditional
fi
nancial institutions. We invest in developing
markets. We believe business operations can bene
fi
t society.
We’re proud to say that our trans
f
ormation strategies are
working. We’re executing on the core elements o
f
our plan.
And we are solidif
y
in
g
our
p
osition as a leader in
p
rovidin
g
innovative solutions, hi
g
h service levels and multi-channel
inte
g
ration for cross-border, cross-currenc
y
mone
y
transfer
.
Stren
g
thenin
g
the Consumer Money Transfer Busines
s
Last
y
ear we continued to ex
p
and the number of touch
p
oints
across our business, with new retail a
g
ents and di
g
ital
p
oints
of
p
resence.
We si
g
ned a number of new a
g
ents, includin
g
the Bank of
China and An
g
ola Post, and launched service in the U.S. with
Wal
g
reens and Duane Reade
.
We now have nearl
y
90 banks active with our account
-
based mone
y
transfer service, includin
g
Bank of Montreal in
Canada. And
,
in November we announced that customers can
send mone
y
in minutes directl
y
from the U.S., U.K., France,
German
y
and Australia to select banks in India.
Our mone
y
transfer services are available to customers at
more than 100
,
000 ATMs and self-service kiosks worldwide.
We continue to offer access throu
g
h mobile
p
hones, and we
n
ow have 17 mobile-
p
hone
p
artners. And in the U.S., U.K.
and Australia, customers can send mone
y
transfers via our
mobile a
pp
.
I
n addition, we have westernunion.com online mone
y
transfer
sites in 25 countries and
p
a
y
out ca
p
abilities in more than 200
cou
n
t
ri
es
a
n
d
te
rri
to
ri
es
.
Revenue from the consumer-to-consumer se
g
ment increased
1
p
ercent for the
y
ear, and C2C transactions were u
p
5
p
ercent.
Our electronic channels delivered stron
g
g
rowth, with revenue
increasin
g
24% for the
y
ear.