Western Union cuts could hit more than 1,000 jobs in Costa Rica. September 10, 2026 Western Union will gradually shrink its operations center in Costa Rica over the next 12 months and shift positions to Guatemala, Lithuania and the Philippines, the company confirmed on Wednesday. Local reports citing sources familiar with the plan say more than 1,000 jobs could be affected. Costa Rica videos. The Denver-based money transfer company said the changes follow a comprehensive review of its business. Western Union said the restructuring is intended to drive greater efficiency across its global financial network and to place support services where they best meet the needs of customers and agents. The company stressed that it will maintain an active presence in Costa Rica. Money sending and receiving services for customers and agents in Costa Rica will continue without interruption, Western Union said, as the reduction applies to its corporate operations center rather than the network of agent locations where customers send and collect funds. Western Union has not disclosed how many positions will be eliminated or relocated. Its Costa Rica careers page describes the site as employing more than 1,200 people representing 32 nationalities and 17 languages. Local business press figures put the workforce at 1,244, with a commitment by the company to maintain 1,100 positions. The Costa Rica operation serves as Western Union's regional operations center for Latin America and is based in Santa Ana, west of San José. It operates under the free trade zone regime, which exempts qualifying companies from income tax, and is registered locally as Unión del Oeste de Costa Rica S.R.L. In an internal communication sent to employees on Wednesday and signed by Ben Hawksworth, Western Union said it plans to move its regional support hub for the Americas to an operations center in Guatemala City. The message said the shift is meant to align the work done at each center with the region in which it is located. The company told staff that not all work will leave Costa Rica and that it is still evaluating which roles will remain. The transition will take place gradually, team by team, and Western Union expects much of it to be complete by mid-2027. During that period, employees in Costa Rica will work alongside colleagues in Guatemala City and other offices to hand over knowledge, procedures and best practices, according to the communication. Workers whose roles are affected will receive severance in line with legal requirements and company policy, along with human resources support and benefits guidance. Western Union acknowledged in the message that the prolonged lack of detail had created uncertainty among staff. The company attributed part of the delay to the drawn-out closing of its planned acquisition of Intermex, a U.S.-based remittance firm, which it said had slowed integration planning and decisions on where to locate operations. The message also recognized 28 years of contributions by the company's Costa Rica teams. The decision comes as Western Union accelerates cost cuts worldwide. Reporting second-quarter results on July 30, President and CEO Devin McGranahan said weaker-than-expected performance in the Americas retail business and the delayed Intermex deal had squeezed margins, requiring the company to "accelerate cost reductions more forcefully in the second half of the year." Quarterly revenue came in at $1 billion, down 1% from a year earlier, while adjusted earnings per share fell to $0.31 from $0.42. On the company's earnings call, McGranahan outlined a restructuring program called Beyond Efficiency, which targets $50 million in annualized savings by the end of 2026 and $200 million by the end of 2027. He cited the transfer of agent onboarding for the Asia-Pacific region from Lithuania and Costa Rica to the company's Manila operations center as one example of the approach. The $500 million Intermex acquisition, announced in August 2025 and initially expected to close in mid-2026, remains pending. In August, California's financial regulator suspended an approval extension for the deal to conduct further review, according to a joint statement from the two companies. The announcement follows other job reductions at multinational employers in Costa Rica this year, including Boston Scientific's confirmed layoffs and a new round of layoffs at Amazon. Western Union said it will share further details on which positions will move and which will stay as planning progresses. 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Western Union taps JuanPay to expand remittance access in the Philippines. September 3, 2026 | 12:05 am WESTERN UNION has partnered with JuanPay to expand access to its remittance services in the Philippines. Philippine Mutual Funds Under the partnership, Western Union's services will be made available at JuanPay's 2,000 branches, starting with an initial rollout planned across 1,400 locations. The collaboration combines Western Union's global financial network spanning more than 200 countries and territories with JuanPay's local footprint to provide international remittance services to communities in the Philippines. "The organization that we're partnering with right now is very unique. Their business model is very unique. I describe JuanPay as unique because if you look at our pedigree, our Western Union communities, we're all about the overseas community. Their model is also about that, and their organization is run by overseas communities. So, if you think about it, it's really a strategic fit between two entities with the same vision," Western Union Philippines Country Director Ricardo Alair said during the launch event held on Wednesday. "We are entering into a partnership with one of the most recognized names in global money movement. It's important because of what this partnership can mean to the communities we serve. Western Union has spent generations connecting people across borders. JuanPay was built from the other direction, from the community," JuanPay (ACM Business Solutions, Inc.) Chairman Rico Fernando Chico said. "We have seen firsthand that while technology continues to change financial services, one thing remains constant. People still need access, people still need trust, and people still need someone close enough to serve them when it matters. That is especially true for Filipino families." Through the partnership, JuanPay, a subsidiary of the ACM group of companies, will also be able to expand service offerings. "Our role is to bring established and trusted financial services closer to the communities where Filipinos actually live and transact. Western Union brings global tech, reach, experience, and trust. JuanPay brings local presence, community, access, and operators who understand the people they serve. Together, we have an opportunity to connect those two strengths, global capability and local accessibility," Mr. Chico said. Western Union Senior Vice-President for Asia-Pacific (APAC) Vince Tallent said the partnership is also in line with their push to expand service channels. Discover more Natural Disasters Stocks & Bonds "So, our breadth in terms of how we service our customers is broadening every day. If a customer wants to go to a retail location, they're very welcome. If they want to go and use a very simple outbound app, they're very welcome to do that as well." REMITTANCE OUTLOOK Meanwhile, Western Union still sees growth potential for remittances despite the Middle East conflict. Western Union Regional Vice-President for APAC Gregory Laurent said the company saw an increase in flows leaving the Middle East, including those going into the Philippines. Philippine Mutual Funds He added that the peso's slide to new lows also supports remittances. "So, what I could tell you, having worked in this industry for quite some time, when the conversion is favorable on the send side, it does create a tailwind for more flows... I cannot give you numbers because it's very difficult to evaluate, but it is a positive trend for us." Meanwhile, Mr. Tallent said they are looking to tap the growth seen intra-regional remittances. "What I find amazing in running Asia-Pacific is I'm seeing a lot of increase and a lot of growth from people moving within Asia. We tend to talk about the US, Asia, Europe, or Africa, or North America to South America, and the Mexico corridor. These are the big corridors, but when I look within Asia-Pacific, there are lots of Vietnamese people in Australia, and there are lots of Vietnamese people in Singapore. So, we're seeing growth within the region, and we need to capture more of that growth which is running within the Asia-Pacific region," he said. "I was walking down the streets of Sydney. I don't see any Australians, by the way. They're all Asian. So, that tells you a story. That's where I see the growth in the region. I think we need to double down on these intra-region corridors, where I think there is still an enormous amount of growth." - Aaron Michael C. Sy % buffered Powered by GliaStudios

AUSTRAC launches probe into Western Union over AML controls. AUSTRAC has launched an investigation into Western Union over anti-money laundering controls in Australia. AUSTRAC has launched an investigation into Western Union over anti-money laundering controls in Australia. Australia's financial intelligence agency, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), has opened an investigation into Western Union Financial Services Australia and its parent company, The Western Union Company, over concerns about the management of high-risk payment channels, customers, and affiliates. The regulator confirmed that Western Union's affiliates are not included in the scope of the investigation. According to Reuters, AUSTRAC said the probe stems from what its CEO, Brendan Thomas, described as serious concerns that Western Union has failed to adequately manage risks linked to criminal exploitation. The investigation will examine the company's AML and CTF programme, focusing on whether its systems can identify, assess, and mitigate money laundering and terrorism financing risks. The regulator will also review whether Western Union's transaction monitoring processes are capable of detecting known money laundering patterns. In addition, AUSTRAC will assess the company's governance framework, including the role played by its global headquarters in overseeing the Australian unit's compliance with AML/CTF requirements. Western Union operates international payment services across multiple countries. A company spokesperson told Reuters that Western Union takes the AUSTRAC investigation seriously and will continue to cooperate fully with the regulator throughout the process. The investigation follows an external audit ordered by AUSTRAC in July 2025 into Western Union's Australian unit, which was launched due to concerns over its compliance with AML/CTF obligations. According to AUSTRAC, Western Union has committed to addressing the issues identified in that audit report. The current investigation also follows AUSTRAC's broader 2025 supervisory campaign into payment providers, which identified significant weaknesses in how certain businesses detected and managed transactions linked to child exploitation. That campaign appears to have informed the regulator's continued scrutiny of remittance providers operating in Australia. AUSTRAC has not indicated a timeline for the investigation's conclusion, stating only that it will determine whether to take further action once the process is complete. The case adds to ongoing regulatory attention on money remittance providers' AML/CTF frameworks, particularly around the detection of transactions connected to exploitation and terrorism financing. For international payment companies operating across multiple jurisdictions, the investigation highlights the continued importance of aligning local compliance operations with group-wide governance and oversight structures. The outcome may also inform how other regulators assess the adequacy of transaction monitoring systems used by global remittance networks... Sep 02, 2026 00:00