Western Union Case Study

How Western Union successfully relaunched their international telephone money transfer service and maximized approval rates

The Challenge

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Western Union was preparing to relaunch their outbound telephone money transfer (TMT) services so U.S.-based customers could send international money transfers to loved ones over the phone.

The goal of the engagement was to successfully integrate the international money transfer channel and improve the client’s approval rate while also reducing their fraud rate.

Prior to working with Vesta, Western Union relied on an in-house fraud team to manually identify fraudulent money transfers.

"As a result of COVID-19, many U.S.-based customers had a need to suddenly send money transfers over the phone, and Vesta immediately sprang into action, launching a service within six weeks that had previously been shut down for more than four years. Their willingness to jump in on this project allowed us to meet our customers’ needs during a challenging time, and ongoing efforts on this product led to a substantial increase in acceptance rates and average transaction amounts."

Lisa Friedman | Product Manager at Western Union

The Solution

Vesta support for Western Union TMT services

Western Union was seeking a solution that would assess transactions in real-time and reduce customer friction by allowing customers to complete an international money transfer via telephone, rather than visiting an agent location.

The client was using Vesta’s Payment Guarantee solution for their domestic TMT channel, and needed to extend that service to their international channel.

Learn more about Vesta's Payment Guarantee solution

The Results

Enhanced Digital Customer Experience

Performance of Western Union’s international telephone money transfer channel has seen consistent improvement since its relaunch in April 2020. The original plan was to only offer this service for a few months, but after seeing strong approval rates and satisfied customers, Western Union made the decision to offer this program to consumers on a permanent basis.

Throughout 2020, the client saw a steady increase in usage of the channel and their approval rate has climbed from low 50% to as high as 85% while assuming zero chargeback costs with Vesta’s Payment Guarantee solution. Vesta was able to successfully bring the company’s cost of fraud to zero and reduced checkout friction by more precisely identifying and eliminating payment risk.

Key Outcomes

Revived an inactive international money transfer channel for U.S. customers
Provided a frictionless and reliable telephone transaction experience
Eliminated chargeback expenses due to fraud
Increased approval rates by over 60%

About Western Union

Western Union is a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money transfer with an average yearly transfer volume of $80+ billion.

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eCommerce Retail

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