Despite El Salvador’s recently passed law mandating Bitcoin as legal tender, local remittance firms are reportedly hesitant to adopt Bitcoin (BTC). Speaking to Reuters, Autonomous Research fintech analyst Kenneth Suchoski argued that remittance firms are unlikely to launch support for Bitcoin and other crypto assets until prompted to do so by customer demand, likely creating a stalemate for the local payments industry. “For Western Union and some of the other remittance providers, keep in mind that most of the volume in the remittance industry is going from developed markets to emerging markets primarily to people — families and friends — …

Western Union might be purchasing cross-border payments company MoneyGram. According to a June 1 article on Bloomberg, the payments giant recently made a takeover offer for MoneyGram. If successful, this would combine the two of the biggest money-transfer companies in the United States. Ups and downs during pandemic Lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders in response to the coronavirus have closed many businesses across the U.S., including local branches of MoneyGram. The number of digital transactions have risen as people stay at home, but they accounted for just 18% of its money transfers in the first quarter, according to Bloomberg. Despite partnering …

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance announced on April 23 that two men plead guilty for illicitly selling steroids and controlled substances and laundering millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies and Western Union payments. Callaway Crain, 35, and Mark Sanchez, also 35, were allegedly behind the darknet website “NextDayGear,” and also manufactured some of the substances they sold. Among their products were reportedly injectable and oral steroids, as well as medication to counteract the adverse effects of their use, including Xanax, Valium and Viagra. Per the announcement, the defendants shipped over 10,000 packages across the United States, generating over $2.3 million …

American financial services company The Western Union Company has partnered with Philippines-based e-wallet provider Coins.ph to enable Filipinos to conduct cross-border money transfers. The development was announced in a press release published on April 3. Within the collaboration, Western Union will purportedly integrate the Coins.ph blockchain-based platform into its cross-border platform, enabling users in the Philippines to receive and hold international money transfers directly into their Coins.ph wallets. Prior to using the new services, customers reportedly have to register for Coins.ph wallet, provide a valid ID, and pass electronic Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures. The release further notes that Coins.ph …

A new strain of Trojan malware for Android phones is targeting global users of top crypto apps such as Coinbase, BitPay and Bitcoin Wallet, as well as banks including JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America. The news was reported by technology news outlet The Next Web on March 28. Based on research from prominent cybercrime analytics firm Group-IB, this is reportedly the first time the Trojan — now named “Gustuff” — has been reported or analyzed. The malware is described as being designed for mass infection and is spread by SMS messages with links to load malicious Android package …

Payments giant Western Union (WU) is partnering with Stellar (XLM) collaborator Thunes to enable WU clients to transfer funds directly to mobile wallets globally. The development was announced in an official press release published on March 21. Thunes is the latterly rebranded trading name of TransferTo — a cross-border payments network focused on emerging markets. TransferTo had previously partnered with open source blockchain project Stellar to trial the integration of blockchain-powered settlements into its services. According to Western Union’s press release, the partnership with Thunes will focus on enabling the use of WU’s digital network or WU agent locations to …

The president of Western Union Global Money Transfer has claimed the company is “ready to adopt any kind of currency,” potentially including cryptocurrencies, in an interview with Reuters Plus, Dec. 17. Odilon Almeida stated there is no big difference between cryptocurrencies and regular digital payments, the likes of which Western Union has been handling for years. Almeida believes that the firm’s long-term stance makes it potentially ready to launch any type of currency, including blockchain-based ones: "We already operate with 130 currencies. If one day we feel like it is the right strategy to introduce cryptocurrencies to our platform, technology-wise, …

From bartering to blockchain, the world of money – and the way we transfer it – has never stood still. Indeed, even the assets we prize have changed. Although it might be nice to have some vegetables in your fridge, using it as a form of currency has probably never crossed your mind. It’s easy to take financial systems for granted. But every advancement over the centuries has caused some major disruption and a lot of getting used to. With each new system came imperfections and pitfalls – and in some ways, this is good. Cryptocurrencies hold a lot of …

Western Union Co. CEO Hikmet Ersek said the global money transfer service will not add a cryptocurrency transfer solution to its services anytime soon, MarketWatch reported June 13. Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, the head of the largest money transfer company in the world explained that customers lean toward fiat money over digital currencies because of the possibility for broader usability of hard assets like cash. He said: “The consumers tell us what they want. People aren’t paying their hospital bills in cryptos.” Ersek also listed central banks’ generally skeptical stance towards cryptocurrencies as a reason not …

As the full list of comments on BitLicense is revealed, the list of contributors and their requests makes for interesting reading – even including a potentially prominent new critic of the scheme. Western Union and Amazon feature notably among the several thousand contributors, whose full texts were released yesterday and confirmed by Benjamin Lawsky on Twitter. All 3,746 public comments DFS received on Bitlicense now live on our site. Revised reg should be out later this month t.co/cvkrFrwjMx — Ben Lawsky (@BenLawsky) 3rd december 2014 They reveal Western Union calling for all Bitcoin ATM installations to be ratified by Benjamin …