Western Union the global money transfer organization that has existed for over two decades and the company’s President Odilon Almedia made a statement yesterday that the enterprise is completely ready to work with cryptocurrencies. Almedia states that they understand international payments better than anyone else and they are ready to utilize the blockchain technology for their aim to bring on cryptocurrencies to Western Union.
But this cannot happen anytime soon as this is still a fresh industry and is going through some issues like volatility, management and compliance and these problems are very common in new payment platforms but on the bright side, the president also stated that he would help the industry in overcoming these problems. The main components to cryptocurrency are:
- Digital currency
- Bockchains
Basically, the currency is just like any other currency, but the real deal is the technology behind it, the software that helps maintain the network and Western Union is looking into that, it’s looking for technologies that best fit their needs and that will best support their platform.
For testing purposes, they partnered with Ripple Labs to check if sending payments was cheaper and faster. Western Union is still conducting tests, but they have not seen positive results in their 6-month trial as stated by the company’s CEO Hikmet Ersek. Ensuring that WU would not be going for crypto just because it’s trending, at least not until it becomes known worldwide as a legit currency. Western Union moves money between a hundred and thirty countries.
According to the charts, the company’s income was around one and a half billion dollars ($1.5 bn) with a decline of one percent (1%) compared to the year before and on a constant currency basis increased by three percent (3%). Customer-to-Consumer earnings that represent eighty percent (80%) of the total income had not changed and constant currency increased by two percent (2%) with the growth of transactions in the Americas (Latin and North) and Europe.
