Western Union has introduced ‘Digital Location’, a service which enables users to send and receive money from the comfort of their own home. The money transfer operator is running a pilot of the combined telephone and video service, which connects customers to an agent to assist with the transfer, in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Oman.
The move away from the traditional hands-on exchange at physical locations comes as more countries implement Covid-19 lockdowns.
„Commencing today, a pilot will enable customers in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Oman to connect in multiple languages via a voice or video call to a money transfer personal-service assistant who will help them through the transaction. Customers will electronically complete their transaction funded by card for payout into Western Union’s global network of bank accounts, wallets or Agent retail locations.”, according to the press release.
„For those customers who have not used an all-digital transfer in the past, need additional guidance through the digital transfer process or who may simply prefer doing business with a person, Western Union’s “Digital Location” now offers a personalized experience accessible from the comfort and safety of a customer’s own home. Western Union intends to expand this service to additional countries soon.”, the company says.
Western Union President and CEO Hikmet Ersek. “Due to limited services via retail locations in some areas impacted by restricted movement guidelines, we are seeing increased demand for our online services. We are happy to now offer another way for our customers to reach out to their loved ones with care and support.”
Ersek continued: “It is more critical than ever to enable our customers to send money to family and loved ones or help importers and exporters to pay their suppliers. Money flows are a vital source of income for many of our customers, including our business clients and partners. Amid all the current uncertainty, we are doing everything we can to keep money moving to where it is needed most.”
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
