Finance · Profile from Finance Research Companion
Western Union
The company that taught the world to send money by wire. Western Union was founded as a telegraph company in the 1850s and started its money-transfer service in 1871. Over the following 150 years it became the largest cross-border remittance company, built on hundreds of thousands of agent locations: grocery stores, pharmacies, check cashers and post offices where migrants pay cash in one country and families collect cash in another. That network is a moat, a cost, and a source of legal risk. In January 2017 Western Union admitted criminal violations, agreed to forfeit ~$586m to the Justice Department and settled with the FTC, after years in which some agents had helped fraudsters and money launderers use the system. Since then it has tried to move customers to its app and website, sold its business-payments arm, launched a dollar stablecoin (USDPT, May 2026) and agreed to buy its US rival Intermex for ~$500m (pending in late 2026). US policy is pushing in two directions: the 1% federal tax on cash-funded remittances from January 1, 2026 penalises the agent model, while immigration enforcement has hit the Americas retail business. Western Union is the knowledge base's main case of cash distribution as a moat that slowly turns into a liability.
At a glance
- Founded
- New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company, Rochester, New York, 1851; renamed Western Union Telegraph Company 1856; money transfer launched 1871
- Builders
- Hiram Sibley and Ezra Cornell (founders); Christina Gold (CEO 2006–10, spin-off from First Data); Hikmet Ersek (CEO 2010–21); Devin McGranahan (CEO from December 31, 2021)
- Headquarters
- Denver, Colorado
- Ownership / structure
- Public; NYSE ticker WU. A licensed money transmitter in US states (through Western Union Financial Services, Inc.), registered with FinCEN as a money services business, and licensed or regulated abroad (including an EU payment institution and a bank in Austria, verify)
- Leadership (2026)
- Devin McGranahan, president and CEO; Matthew Cagwin, CFO (verify)
- Segments
- Consumer Money Transfer (CMT: retail and Branded Digital); Consumer Services (retail foreign exchange, prepaid, bill payments in some markets, media network, digital assets). Business Solutions sold in 2022
- Scale
- More than 200 countries and territories, nearly 130 currencies (company); hundreds of thousands of agent locations (company has cited >500,000 historically; verify current figure); ~9,000 employees (verify)
- Revenue and profit
- 2025: revenue $4.1bn (−4% reported, −2% adjusted excluding Iraq), GAAP EPS $1.52, adjusted EPS $1.75; Branded Digital revenue +7%; Consumer Services +32% (company). Q2 2026: revenue ~$1.0bn (−1%), adjusted EPS $0.31 vs $0.42 (company)
- Government support
- None. Major enforcement: DOJ deferred prosecution agreement, FTC order and FinCEN penalty (January 2017)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Telegraph money transfer (1871); Southwest-border AML settlement with Arizona (2010); spin-off from First Data (2006); Business Solutions build and sale (2009–22); DOJ/FTC $586m settlement (2017); the digital pivot and McGranahan's "Evolve 2025" (2021–25); the 1% remittance tax (2026); USDPT stablecoin (2025–26); the Intermex acquisition (2025–26, pending)
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
1871
Telegraph Money Transfer
Launch
2006
Spin Off from First Data
Spin-off
2010
Arizona Southwest Border AML Settlement
Regulatory settlement
2011
Business Solutions Build and Sale
Acquisition / divestiture
2017
DOJ FTC 586m Settlement
Regulatory settlement
2021
Digital Pivot and Evolve Strategy
Pivot / restructuring
2025
Intermex Acquisition
Acquisition (pending)
2025
USDPT Stablecoin and Digital Asset Network
Launch
2026
One Percent Remittance Tax
Regulatory / pricing