Western Union Shares Drop, Bitcoin Interest Surges in Mexico
Western Union shares have plunged following the Mexican president’s cancellation of a meeting with Donald Trump, underscoring the need for less nationally vulnerable payment systems like Bitcoin. Following an announcement by the American president that he intended to begin construction on a southern border wall immediately, funded by a 20 percent tariff on imports from Mexico, Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto canceled a planned meeting between the two. This conflict between the two nations, who are significant trading partners, caused economic shock waves including a sharp hit to....
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Mexico’s biggest cash cow is under siege as Donald J. Trump threatens to tax or halt remittances to the country in order to pay for his border wall. Western Union Shares Dive. Following Trump’s executive order to start building the southern border wall issued on Wednesday, markets are already taking into account the possibility of a tax on remittances from the U.S. to Mexico. This is already being felt by such remittance giants as Western Union whose shares dropped 2.44% today. As a whole, the legacy remittance industry has been facing increasing competition from fintech and money transfer....
In what could probably be called the surprise of the century, financial services company Western Union says Bitcoin just isn't quite ready for international money transfers - Western Union's big business. A huge surprise, indeed. It all went down at a Western Union conference that took place recently. "We're a long, long way from sending momma in Mexico $240 each month or a Somali family in a refugee camp $200 each month in bitcoin that is held in a wallet for conversion to local fiat currency and spending as needed," said MSB Compliance president Jay Postma. "The infrastructure and market....
Bitcoin could cause trouble for Western Union. New cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are disruptive by their very nature. They allow for cheaper, faster, and easier payments than any system can currently do. Market leaders in remittances, banking, and investing, could have their world turned upside down by the new Bitcoin ecosystem! Since Bitcoin allows for many banking or payment transfer “functions” to be automated by user created applications (similar to apps. in the iTunes app. store), some believe that these currencies could disrupt industry leaders like Western Union and Paypal in a same....
In the world of cash-transfers, few other companies come to mind as instantaneously as Western Union. If you’ve walked in a convenience store anywhere between the west and east coast of the United States, you’ve probably seen a banner for Western Union. The remittance provider is currently facing a preliminary antitrust inquiry as the EU examines allegations of Western Union intentionally driving rivals out of business. Allegedly, Western Union is giving their retail outlet partners contracts with exclusivity contracts in them which don’t allow other cash-transfer services to operate....
Western Union Chief Information Officer John "David" Thompson was interviewed by Coindesk this week and made some very revealing comments about Bitcoin, and its future in global monetary transfer. Many know Western Union as the world's largest personal monetary transfer corporation, founded way back in 1851. Operating in 220 countries worldwide, it generated almost $800M last year in net income, which is down over 20% from 2012. I wonder why it is down over $200M all of the sudden? Also read: Digital Currency Advocate: What Western Union CEO Is Missing. Western Union CIO: Bitcoin doesn't....