Western Union and PagaPhone SmartPay join forces to expand remittance channels


The alliance between the American bank, Western Union, and the financial technology company, PagaPhone, will offer the possibility of sending and receiving funds from the United States to Mexico, from the PagaPhone SmartPay digital wallet.

During the announcement, Ulises Téllez, general director of PagaPhone SmartPay México, pointed out that 10 million remittances are paid monthly in Mexico, of which 94% are paid in cash. For the beginning of its operations they intend to serve 1% of transfers from compatriots.

“It is important to understand that there is going to be an effect in which the number of operations can grow, depending on the need that the client has at a given moment. If before he sent 100% of his transactions through a retail channel, perhaps now we will see him use a different one,” said Pablo Porro General Manager for Mexico and Central America at Western Union.

Both companies highlighted that from electronic wallets, users have the option to make transfers to other accounts through SPEI, pay for services from the application, in addition to withdrawing cash from ATMs, via a debit card offered by PagaPhone.

Through recurring remittance transfers, both companies seek to offer their users the opportunity to create a history of income, which would support them in the eligibility of a loan.

Users in the United States will be able to deposit to their digital wallet, in the network of 50,000 available points, additionally there are the solutions offered through the PagaPhone application.

“One of the main objectives that both entities seek, with initiatives of this type, is to deepen the processes of financial inclusion and achieve a higher level of traceability, in the cash flows that arrive from abroad, and in that sense generate more benefits. for the country and the users”, commented Porro.

PagaPhone currently operates as a Financial Institution for Electronic Payments under the eighth transitory article of the Fintech Law.

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