Dallas, Texas 10/18/2013 (Financialstrend) – The $10.17 billion market capitalized The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) biggest USP over the years has been its ability to strike long lasting business partnerships with local credit services firms. This has allowed this S&P 500 tracked Company to expand its service offerings to newer markets at a faster clip than its competition.
In news that came out over the past two days, Western Union is seen to be adding new partners to this already strong network. On October 17 the company announced that the global payment transfer services provider has signed off to continue its long cherished business relationship with France based payment service provide La Banque Postale. La Bnaque is a subsidiary of France biggest postal service provider La Poste Group.
For Western Union the continuation of the relationship made sense since the France based firm which serviced close to 10 million customers last year will provide a strong delivery network in one of Europe’s largest economies. The tie up between the two companies goes back to 1996. Commenting on the side lines of the announcement Marie-Elise Droga who is the director of Western Union, France has been quoted to have said that, “We are very pleased to again extend our long-term and successful relationship with La Banque Postale, which combines the best of both our companies.” He went on to add that the secret of the long lasting relationship has been the successful synergies between the “breadth and talent that La Banque Postale’s network and teams” have to offer and the “specialist know-how” that Western Union brings to the table.
In a related development on October 16, The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) had announced the launch of a new multi branded prepaid card in Italy. This was a joint collaborative effort between Italy based Lottomatica and MasterCard.
The shares of Master Card were trading at $18.31 at close of business on October 17.