Western Union Unveils Major Upgrade of Its Digital Payments Platform for International College Students

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a leader in global payments services, today announces the launch of its enhanced WU^® GlobalPay for Students product, which enables academic institutions to more efficiently reconcile, refund and track payments from international students. The platform is designed to help universities and colleges around the world simplify the reconciliation of incoming international payments, which can be a complex and time-consuming process. Western Union made the announcement at Money20/20 in Copenhagen where three of its leading executives are speaking this week on WU’s role as a participant and enabler of the fintech movement transforming financial services and how it continues to drive innovation in the international payments digital world. Speaking at the Money20/20 conference in Copenhagen, Kerry Agiasotis, Chief Payments Officer, Western Union, said: “This release of WU GlobalPay for Students is a real testament of WU’s capabilities and shifting orientation as a fintech organisation. Staying focused on the needs of both our Education Institution customers and their international students, the product has been revamped to take advantage of substantial investments WU has made in new technologies. The upgrade results in significant efficiencies for our Education Institution customers in more rapidly and cost effectively processing international student receivables, whilst at the same time providing a modern, multi-channel user experience that is demanded by today’s digital consumers.” Designed with an intuitive mobile-first user interface and real-time payment tracking capabilities, GlobalPay for Students was developed to better meet the needs of international students and to help improve the overall payer experience. In addition to online bank transfer and credit card payments, the enhanced platform offers users a wide range of online payment options in over 30 countries, including Geoswift (Unionpay, Tenpay & AliPay), POLIpayments, India Net Banking, Trustly and SOFORT. Other updates include a new reporting dashboard so clients can view payment activity at-a-glance, a fully-automated refund process that will help streamline processes for clients and payment tracking that gives payers complete visibility on the status of their payment.