Western Union Hong Kong

Western Union's market leadership in the remittance business in a difficult year reinforced by higher growth and profitability, innovative network and channel expansion differentiated it from a strong list of nominees said Asian Banker.

Chris Kapfer, Head of The Asian Banker's Excellence in Retail Financial Services Programme, said: "Western Union stood out by excelling in the field of business growth and adopted an innovative strategy in network and channel expansion. It has demonstrated strong leadership in the remittance business compared to its competitors."

As the leading money transfer company in Asia Pacific, Western Union adopted a network strategy to increase availability by engaging more agents in different classes of trades hinged on strong compliance and service reliability. It also kept increasing its core cash transfer business through traditional and innovative channels, said Asian Banker.

Over 120 banks and financial institutions from 23 countries across the Asia Pacific, Gulf and Central Asian regions were evaluated as part of Asian Banker's Excellence in Retail Financial Services Programme.

Accepting the award on behalf of Western Union at a gala ceremony in Shanghai, Drina Yue, Managing Director & Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific, said: "Western Union is honored to be recognized for our work in Asia Pacific in 2009.

"As always, we work hard to put current and future consumer needs front of mind. To that end we will continue to focus on our core consumer-to-consumer business by building our network encompassing all classes of trade, and expanding our service offering, most notably through electronic channels - mobile, internet, ATMs. We will also continue to be responsible members and an integral part of the communities we serve," she said.

Western Union differentiates itself from its competitors by the company's commitment to being wherever their consumers want them to be. As a result, Western Union currently operates in more than 420,000 locations in more than 200 countries and territories around the world*.

* Network data as of March 2010

About The Asian Banker

The Asian Banker is the foremost provider of strategic business intelligence on the financial services industry in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. The organization has offices in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing and Dubai as well as representatives in Shanghai, London and New York. With a business that revolves around publications, research services, training and forums, the organization is highly regarded in the financial services community for its incisive and independent commentaries on developments in the industry. The company's website is www.theasianbanker.com.