Digital money transfer revenues on track to exceed $1 billion in 2021; first quarter revenue growth of 45%

WU.com delivers fourth consecutive quarter with growth of 50% or more for transactions and more than 40% for average monthly active users

Total Company revenues grew 2% to $1.2 billion; Earnings Per Share (EPS) of $0.44

Reaffirms 2021 financial outlook for revenue and margin; raises GAAP EPS to $2.06 - $2.16

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, today reported first quarter financial results and updated its 2021 financial outlook, which includes a $0.06 increase in the GAAP EPS range primarily from the sale of an investment in the second quarter of 2021.

The Company’s first quarter revenue of $1.2 billion increased 2% on both a reported and constant currency basis compared to the prior year period, including a 1% benefit from inflation in Argentina. The increase in revenue was led by strength in digital money transfer which grew 45% to a new quarterly high of $242 million.

EPS in the first quarter was $0.44. GAAP EPS in the prior year period was $0.42, which included costs related to the Company’s restructuring program that was completed in the fourth quarter of 2020, while adjusted EPS was $0.44. EPS in the current period benefitted from revenue growth, a lower effective tax rate, and share repurchases, offset by increased investments in strategic initiatives and marketing and compensation-related expenses.

President and CEO Hikmet Ersek said, “2021 is an important year for Western Union and we got off to a healthy start led by the continued strong growth of our market-leading digital business that generated over $240 million of revenue in the first quarter, putting us on track to exceed $1 billion of digital revenue this year. While additional waves of COVID-19 continue to affect countries around the world, we are optimistic that conditions may continue to improve over the year, supporting the momentum of our business and allowing us to achieve our 2021 financial outlook.”

Ersek added, “Our growth strategy has positioned us well for today’s dynamic environment and to lead the digital transformation of cross-border, Consumer-to-Consumer payments, and also leverage our capabilities in the rapidly growing cross-border payments market across different use cases. We remain focused on executing, evolving, and investing behind our strategy to ensure that we can capitalize on these exciting growth opportunities and develop an ecosystem of services centered around cross-border financial transactions.”

CFO Raj Agrawal stated, “We are encouraged by our first quarter performance that puts us on track to achieve our 2021 financial outlook. Our digital consumer business maintained the elevated levels of growth that we saw last year, while trends for our retail consumer business and Business Solutions segment improved sequentially. We also delivered operating margin of 19%, despite making significant investments in initiatives that were delayed in 2020 due to the effects of COVID-19, and we resumed returning cash to investors through share repurchases. Given our solid start to the year, we are affirming our revenue and operating margin financial outlook and raising our GAAP EPS financial outlook for 2021.”

Q1 Business Highlights

• Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) transactions increased 9% in the quarter, while revenues increased 4% on a reported basis, or 2% constant currency. Within the C2C segment, cross-border money transfer revenues grew 6% partially offset by declines in domestic money transfers. Transaction growth was led by Europe and CIS, U.S. outbound, and the Middle East, partially offset by declines in U.S. domestic money transfer and Latin America and the Caribbean.

• Digital money transfer revenues increased 45% on a reported basis, or 44% constant currency, and represented 23% and 34% of total C2C revenues and transactions, respectively. Digital money transfer reached new quarterly highs for principal and revenues. Westernunion.com revenue grew 38% on a reported basis, or 37% constant currency, including cross-border revenue growth of 49%.

• Westernunion.com average monthly active users for the first quarter increased 46% year-over-year. Westernunion.com was the most downloaded mobile app among peer money transfer companies during the first quarter, according to data provided by mobile app marketing firm Sensor Tower¹.

• Western Union Business Solutions revenues declined 2% on a reported basis, or 8% constant currency, and continued to improve sequentially, with declines due to lower hedging activity and the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on certain segment verticals. Other revenues, which consists primarily of retail bill payments in the U.S. and Argentina and money orders, declined 18% due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19 and the depreciation of the Argentine peso. Business Solutions and Other represented 8% and 5% of total Company revenue, respectively.

Q1 Financial Highlights

• The operating margin in the quarter was 19.2%. Prior year period GAAP operating margin was 19.6% and included approximately $11 million of restructuring expenses, while adjusted operating margin was 20.5%. The decrease in operating margin was driven by higher investments in strategic initiatives and marketing and compensation-related expenses, partially offset by changes in foreign exchange.

• The effective tax rate in the quarter was 10.4%. In the prior year period, both the GAAP and adjusted effective tax rates were 12.5%. The decrease in the Company’s effective tax rate was primarily due to changes in composition between higher-taxed and lower-taxed foreign earnings and an increase in discrete tax benefits.

• Cash flow from operating activities for the quarter was $176 million. The Company returned $172 million to shareholders in the first quarter consisting of $97 million in dividends and $75 million of share repurchases.

2021 Outlook

The Company today reaffirmed its 2021 financial outlook for revenue growth and operating margin and increased the GAAP EPS outlook by $0.06 reflecting the impact of two items realized in the second quarter of 2021 including the sale of an investment, partially offset by expenses related to the early retirement of the Company’s notes due in 2022. Excluding the impact of these two items, the 2021 EPS outlook is unchanged. The outlook provided today assumes no material worsening in current global macro-economic conditions or the COVID-19 pandemic:

Adjustment Items

Adjusted tax rate and earnings per share metrics for 2021 periods exclude two items realized in the second quarter of 2021 including the impact from the sale of an investment and expenses related to the early retirement of the Company’s notes due in 2022, net of related taxes, as applicable.

Adjusted operating profit, tax rate, and earnings per share metrics for 2020 periods exclude restructuring expenses and acquisition and divestiture costs, net of related taxes, as applicable.

Although the Company has previously incurred and can reasonably be expected to incur restructuring costs in the future, these expenses were specific to the implementation of a global strategy initiative and the Company has therefore provided adjusted financial results that exclude these expenses.

Additional Statistics

Additional key statistics for the quarter and historical trends can be found in the supplemental tables included with this press release.

All amounts included in the supplemental tables to this press release are rounded to the nearest tenth of a million, except as otherwise noted. As a result, the percentage changes and margins disclosed herein may not recalculate precisely using the rounded amounts provided.

Non-GAAP Measures

Western Union presents a number of non-GAAP financial measures because management believes that these metrics provide meaningful supplemental information in addition to the GAAP metrics and provide comparability and consistency to prior periods. Constant currency results assume foreign revenues are translated from foreign currencies to the U.S. dollar, net of the effect of foreign currency hedges, at rates consistent with those in the prior year.

Reconciliations of non-GAAP to comparable GAAP measures are available in the accompanying schedules and in the “Investor Relations” section of the Company’s website at https://ir.westernunion.com.

Investor and Analyst Conference Call and Slide Presentation

The Company will host a conference call and webcast, including slides, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time today. To listen to the conference call via telephone, dial +1 (888) 317-6003 (U.S.) or +1 (412) 317-6061 (outside the U.S.) ten minutes prior to the start of the call. The pass code is 0142810.

The conference call and accompanying slides will be available via webcast at https://ir.westernunion.com. Registration for the event is required, so please register at least five minutes prior to the scheduled start time.

A webcast replay will be available at https://ir.westernunion.com.

Please note: All statements made by Western Union officers on this call are the property of Western Union and subject to copyright protection. Other than the replay, Western Union has not authorized, and disclaims responsibility for, any recording, replay or distribution of any transcription of this call.

Safe Harbor Compliance Statement for Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain statements that are forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, our forward-looking statements. Words such as "expects," "intends," "targets," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "guides," "provides guidance," "provides outlook," and other similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," and "might" are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Readers of this press release of The Western Union Company (the "Company," "Western Union," "we," "our," or "us") should not rely solely on the forward-looking statements and should consider all uncertainties and risks discussed in the Risk Factors section and throughout the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020. The statements are only as of the date they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

Possible events or factors that could cause results or performance to differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements include the following: (i) events related to our business and industry, such as: changes in general economic conditions and economic conditions in the regions and industries in which we operate, including global economic downturns and trade disruptions, or significantly slower growth or declines in the money transfer, payment service, and other markets in which we operate, including downturns or declines related to interruptions in migration patterns or other events, such as public health emergencies, epidemics, or pandemics such as COVID-19, civil unrest, war, terrorism, or natural disasters, or non-performance by our banks, lenders, insurers, or other financial services providers; failure to compete effectively in the money transfer and payment service industry, including among other things, with respect to price, with global and niche or corridor money transfer providers, banks and other money transfer and payment service providers, including digital, mobile and internet-based services, card associations, and card-based payment providers, and with digital currencies and related protocols, and other innovations in technology and business models; political conditions and related actions, including trade restrictions and government sanctions, in the United States and abroad, which may adversely affect our business and economic conditions as a whole, including interruptions of United States or other government relations with countries in which we have or are implementing significant business relationships with agents, clients, or other partners; deterioration in customer confidence in our business, or in money transfer and payment service providers generally; failure to maintain our agent network and business relationships under terms consistent with or more advantageous to us than those currently in place; our ability to adopt new technology and develop and gain market acceptance of new and enhanced services in response to changing industry and consumer needs or trends; changes in, and failure to manage effectively, exposure to foreign exchange rates, including the impact of the regulation of foreign exchange spreads on money transfers and payment transactions; any material breach of security, including cybersecurity, or safeguards of or interruptions in any of our systems or those of our vendors or other third parties; cessation of or defects in various services provided to us by third-party vendors; mergers, acquisitions, and the integration of acquired businesses and technologies into our Company, divestitures, and the failure to realize anticipated financial benefits from these transactions, and events requiring us to write down our goodwill; decisions to change our business mix; our ability to realize the anticipated benefits from restructuring-related initiatives, which may include decisions to downsize or to transition operating activities from one location to another, and to minimize any disruptions in our workforce that may result from those initiatives; failure to manage credit and fraud risks presented by our agents, clients, and consumers; changes in tax laws or their interpretation, any subsequent regulation, and potential related state income tax impacts, and unfavorable resolution of tax contingencies; adverse rating actions by credit rating agencies; our ability to protect our trademarks, patents, copyrights, and other intellectual property rights and to defend ourselves against potential intellectual property infringement claims; our ability to attract and retain qualified key employees and to manage our workforce successfully; material changes in the market value or liquidity of securities that we hold; restrictions imposed by our debt obligations; (ii) events related to our regulatory and litigation environment, such as: liabilities or loss of business resulting from a failure by us, our agents, or their subagents to comply with laws and regulations and regulatory or judicial interpretations thereof, including laws and regulations designed to protect consumers, or detect and prevent money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, and other illicit activity; increased costs, operational burden or loss of business due to regulatory initiatives and changes in laws, including changes in interpretations, resulting in increasing regulations and industry practices and standards in the United States and abroad, affecting us, our agents, or their subagents, our external business partners such as financial institutions, or the banks with which we or our agents maintain bank accounts needed to provide our services, including related to anti-money laundering regulations, anti-fraud measures, our licensing arrangements, customer due diligence, agent and subagent due diligence, registration and monitoring requirements, consumer protection requirements, remittances, and immigration; liabilities, increased costs or loss of business and unanticipated developments resulting from governmental investigations and consent agreements with or enforcement actions by regulators; liabilities resulting from litigation, including class-action lawsuits and similar matters, and regulatory enforcement actions, including costs, expenses, settlements, and judgments; failure to comply with regulations and evolving industry standards regarding consumer privacy, data use, the transfer of personal data between jurisdictions, and information security, including with respect to the General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act; failure to comply with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, as well as regulations issued pursuant to it and the actions of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and similar legislation and regulations enacted by other governmental authorities in the United States and abroad related to consumer protection and derivative transactions; effects of unclaimed property laws or their interpretation or the enforcement thereof; failure to maintain sufficient amounts or types of regulatory capital or other restrictions on the use of our working capital to meet the changing requirements of our regulators worldwide; changes in accounting standards, rules and interpretations, or industry standards affecting our business; and (iii) other events, such as: catastrophic events; and management’s ability to identify and manage these and other risks.

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 businesses, financial institutions, governments, and consumers through one of the world’s widest reaching networks, accessing billions of bank accounts, millions of digital wallets and cards, and over half a million retail locations. Western Union connects the world to bring boundless possibilities within reach. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.

WU-G

THE WESTERN UNION COMPANY

NOTES TO KEY STATISTICS

(in millions, unless indicated otherwise)

(Unaudited)

Western Union’s management believes the non-GAAP financial measures presented provide meaningful supplemental information regarding the Company’s operating results to assist management, investors, analysts, and others in understanding the Company’s financial results and to better analyze trends in the Company’s underlying business because they provide consistency and comparability to prior periods.

A non-GAAP financial measure should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the most comparable GAAP financial measure. A non-GAAP financial measure reflects an additional way of viewing aspects of the Company’s operations that, when viewed with the Company’s GAAP results and the reconciliation to the corresponding GAAP financial measure, provide a more complete understanding of the Company’s business. Users of the financial statements are encouraged to review the Company’s financial statements and publicly-filed reports in their entirety and not to rely on any single financial measure. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included below, where not previously reconciled above.