RobinsonsBank joins Western Union business

In a move to strengthen its presence and exceed last year growth that surpassed 13.7%, Western Union Co. announced its intention to tap the Gokongwei-led JG Summit Group's banking and retail businesses. As the company reported, it chose thrift lender RobinsonsBank as its first direct agent bank in the Philippines.

As a result, Western Union Money TransferSM services will be presented at 46 branches of RobinsonsBank in the country. The collaboration will let the remittance giant ‘consolidate its position in this exciting market, ensuring Western Union’s customers in every major island, province, district, and city in the Philippines have access to fast, reliable, and convenient international and domestic money transfer services,’ Western Union Senior Vice President for Pacific and Indochina Patricia Zamora-Riingen stated. 

Western Union has over 6,300 agent locations in the Philippines through retail network of a wide variety of agents such as department stores, supermarkets, pawnshops, and travel agencies. And RobinsonsBank recognized the necessity of joining to the $400-billion global money transfer market, global network of over 375,000 agent locations in more than 200 countries and territories.

Within a year, the Western Union’s remittance services are expected to be available at a 100 additional retail locations of JG Summit Group that also owns Robinsons Supermarket, Robinsons Department Store, the MiniStop convenience store chain, and Digital Telecommunications (Sun Cellular Mobile), in a year’s time.

RobinsonsBank Chairman Lance Gokongwei said that adding the launch of Western Union Money Transfer services is one of its strategic initiatives to expand its retail banking services portfolio while extending international and domestic market coverage.