WU

The Western Union Company

The Western Union Company (“Western Union” or the “Company”) is a leader in global money transfer and payment services, providing people and businesses with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send money and make payments around the world.

The Western Union® brand is globally recognized and represents speed, reliability, trust and convenience. As people move and travel around the world, they are able to use the services of a well recognized brand to transfer funds. Our consumer-to-consumer money transfer service enables people to send money around the world in minutes. Our services are available through a network of over 410,000 agent locations in more than 200 countries and territories, with approximately 85% of those locations outside of the United States. Each location in our agent network is capable of providing one or more of our services, with the majority offering Western Union branded service. As of December 31, 2009, over 75% of our locations had experienced money transfer activity in the prior 12 months.

Our global business payments service provides consumers and businesses with flexible and convenient options for making one-time or recurring bill payments. In the third quarter of 2009, we acquired Custom House, Ltd. (“Custom House”), a provider of international business-to-business cross-border, cross-currency payment services. Although most of the revenue in our global business payments segment is generated in the United States, we continue to expand our international presence and globally diversify our revenue, primarily through our acquisition of Custom House and our previous acquisition of Pago Fácil.

We believe that brand strength, size and reach of our global network, and convenience and reliability for our customers have been important factors relating to the growth of our business. As we continue to meet the needs of our customers for fast, reliable and convenient money transfer services, we are also working to enhance our services and provide our consumer and business clients with access to an expanding portfolio of payment and other financial services, including Visa® and Mastercard® prepaid debit card offerings.

The majority of our revenue comes from fees that consumers pay when they send money or make payments. In certain money transfer and payment services transactions involving different send and receive currencies, we generate revenue based on the difference between the exchange rate set by us to the consumer or business and the rate at which we or our agents are able to acquire currency.

Our Segments

We manage our business around the customers we serve and the type of services we offer. Each segment addresses a different combination of customer needs, distribution networks and services. Our segments are consumer-to-consumer and global business payments. Our other businesses not included in these segments primarily consist of Western Union branded money order services available through a network of third-party agents primarily in the United States and Canada.

Consumer-to-Consumer Segment

Individual money transfers from one consumer to another are the core of our business, representing 85% of our total consolidated revenues for 2009. We offer consumers a variety of ways to send money. Although most remittances are sent in cash at one of our more than 410,000 agent locations worldwide, in some countries we offer the ability to send money over the internet or the telephone, using a credit or debit card, or through a withdrawal directly from a consumer’s bank account. Some agent locations accept debit cards to initiate a transaction. We also offer consumers several options to receive a money transfer. While the vast majority of transfers are paid in cash at agent locations, in some places we offer payout directly to the receiver’s bank account, to a stored-value card, to a mobile phone or through the issuance of a money order.

Global Business Payments Segment

In our global business payments segment, we provide fast and convenient options to make one-time or recurring payments for consumers or businesses to other businesses. Our business payments services allow consumers to make payments to a variety of organizations, including utilities, auto finance companies, mortgage servicers, financial service providers, governmental agencies and other businesses. We also provide international business-to-business cross-border, cross-currency payment services as a result of our acquisition of Custom House in September 2009. We can process payments using the customer’s credit card, debit card, bank account or cash depending on the service selected. We believe our business customers who receive payments from consumers benefit from their relationship with Western Union as it provides them with real-time or near real-time posting of their customer payments. In certain circumstances, our relationships with business customers also provide them with an additional source of income, as well as reduced expenses for cash and check handling.

Employees and Labor

As of January 31, 2010, our businesses employed approximately 6,800 employees. Our United States based employees are no longer represented by any unions or collective bargaining agreements.