Western Union Highlights ESG Progress and Recognitions Received
The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) today released its 2021 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report, spotlighting the Company's ongoing commitment to advancing its strategy and actions aligned with key ESG priorities.
"People are drawn to work for and do business with companies that make an impact," said Devin McGranahan, Chief Executive Officer. "This year's report shows that Western Union continues to make solid progress on our ESG journey, which in turn enables us to effect even more positive change in the communities we serve. I'm proud to work with colleagues who bring their best every day to improve the lives of our customers and communities around the world."
2021 ESG Highlights
Western Union's ESG strategy is focused on efforts and areas where the Company can make meaningful impact, including:
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Furthering economic prosperity: The Company launched a digital banking platform in Germany and Romania, combining money transfer, a multi-currency account and debit card. Western Union believes offering people simple, trusted solutions via digital and retail access points creates pathways for long-term economic success.
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Promoting the integrity of money movement: Western Union also continued progress on our commitment to money movement that is safe, secure and built on a foundation of integrity. While third-party data show the rate of fraudulent activity across the financial industry is increasing, in 2021 our Company's reported consumer fraud globally decreased by 10% and we prevented approximately $1.9 billion in fraudulent transactions. These efforts were supported by fraud prevention messages that reached consumers through 121 million consumer fraud touches, a 97% increase over 2020.1
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Advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion: Another key area of focus for the Company in 2021 was advancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). In 2021, Western Union developed a DEI strategy focused on hiring, development, promotion, retention and cultural change. DEI milestones include:
- A newly formed DEI program office, naming a Chief Diversity and Talent Officer, a specialized diversity recruiting lead and a full-time DEI program lead; and
- Achieving gender pay equity globally and racial/ethnicity pay equity in the US.
This year also marks the first time Western Union has disclosed our Company's Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Increased Recognition
The Company also reported recognitions for its ESG efforts, including:
- Recognized as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies® for the first time;
- Bloomberg's Gender Equality Index for the third consecutive year;
- JUST Capital's Top 100 Companies Supporting Healthy Families and Communities; and
- Human Rights Campaign's Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality.
For more information and additional details related to our 2021 progress, and to download Western Union's 2021 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report, click here.
About Western Union
The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments. Western Union's platform provides seamless cross-border flows and its leading global financial network bridges more than 200 countries and territories and over 130 currencies. We connect consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments through one of the world's widest reaching networks, accessing billions of bank accounts, millions of digital wallets and cards, and a substantial global network of retail locations. Western Union connects the world to bring boundless possibilities within reach. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.
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1. Consumer Fraud Awareness Touches are derived from metrics tracked across various platforms, including paid media ads, social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Community Management), outreach attendees and wu.com/fraudawareness visits. Each platform may have a unique method for quantifying individuals who have consumed anti-fraud content, based on reach, impressions, views, visits and/ or received physical materials. Given that consumers may engage with our content through multiple channels, each "touch" may not be a unique consumer.
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