The Western Union Company has released its 2022 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report, spotlighting the Company’s ongoing commitment to advance its ‘Evolve 2025’ strategy and actions aligned with its key ESG priorities.
“What drives the most successful businesses is a strong sense of purpose,” said Devin McGranahan, Chief Executive Officer. “Western Union’s ESG progress is one important measure of how we are creating positive change in the lives of the people and communities we serve. We are continuing to build a company that lives up to our mission of supporting aspiring people everywhere.”
2022 ESG Highlights
Western Union’s ESG strategy is focused on efforts and areas where we can make meaningful impact, including:
- Supporting aspiring populations globally: Western Union’s network offers a broad mix of channels. Our retail and digital network reaches more than 200 countries and territories, serving millions of customers across more than 20,000 corridors or country pairings. This approach enables us to serve a broad range of customers, including those in rural and remote locations, people with difficulties using digital services, those who prefer to transact in cash and the estimated 1.4 billion1 adults worldwide who are unbanked by choice or circumstance. We believe offering people simple, trusted solutions via both digital and retail access points creates pathways for long-term economic success.
- Promoting the integrity of global money movement: Western Union progressed our commitment to helping build a global financial system our customers, partners and communities can trust. While third-party data show the rate of fraudulent activity across the financial industry is increasing, in 2022 our reported consumer fraud globally decreased by 12% and we prevented approximately $1.3 billion in fraudulent transactions. These efforts were supported by fraud prevention education. Throughout 2022, we posted educational information and notifications regarding the war in Ukraine and charity-related fraud, as well as additional fraud types such as companionship, elder and World Cup advanced fee or online purchase scams. In fact, in 2022 we exceeded our consumer fraud-education goal of 300 million anti-fraud consumer touches, achieving 336 million touches.
- Fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture: Another key area of focus for the Company in 2022 was advancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), as we aspire to have a workforce that reflects the customers we serve. In 2022, nearly 92 percent of our candidate slates and 84 percent of interview panels globally were diverse. We also continued to market job opportunities through partnerships and campaigns with Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the U.S. and online platforms such as DiversityInc and the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. Western Union also piloted a sponsorship program aiming to identify high-performing women and connect them with mentors who can help maximize their potential and growth. Furthermore, we maintained gender pay equity globally and racial/ethnicity pay equity in the U.S. for the third consecutive year.
- The Western Union Foundation: In 2022, the Western Union Foundation, which creates economic opportunity for youth and people who migrate by empowering them with the education and resources needed to succeed in today’s global economy, concluded its three-year Opportunity Beyond Borders (OBB) commitment. OBB exceeded its goal with $20 Million invested, reaching two million people and connecting 50,000 people with new opportunities. The Foundation will announce details of its latest commitment later this year.
Continued Recognition
The Company also continued to receive national and global recognitions for its ESG efforts in 2022, including:
- One of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® (second consecutive year)
- Bloomberg’s Gender Equality Index (fourth consecutive year)
- JUST Capital’s Top 100 Companies Supporting Healthy Families and Communities (second consecutive year)
- Human Rights Campaign’s Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality (third consecutive year)
- Bandera Azul Ecologica (recognizing work to protect and conserve Costa Rica’s natural resources)
- Great Place to Work Certified (Costa Rica, India)
For more information and additional details related to our 2022 progress, and to download Western Union’s 2022 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report, click here.