Regions Financial Corp. will offer person-to-person and bill payment services at 1,700 bank locations later this year through Western Union Co.'s money transfer platform.
The Birmingham, Ala., banking company said Tuesday that Regions Bank accountholders and walk-in consumers will be able to send and receive domestic and international money transfers and make same-day bill payments as a result of the partnership.
The agreement will allow Regions "to offer a broader suite of products and services to meet the needs of our customers and communities," John Owen, the head of consumer services at Regions Bank, said in a press release.
Regions will offer the services in the 16 states in which it operates. It also plans to offer Western Union online services to Regions' online banking customers in the future.
Regions adds to Western Union's growing agent network, which has about 455,000 locations when including the company's Vigo and Orlandi Valuta brands.
The services provide a new way for Regions to generate revenue in the face of pending restrictions on debit card interchange fees and new overdraft regulations that took effect last year.
Western Union, of Englewood, Colo., charges consumers' fees for using its money transfer and bill payment services and pays its agents a commission based on the percentage of revenue generated.
Regions had been looking at Western Union services and other options for "quite some time" to give customers new payment options, Evelyn Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the bank said.
"Certainly it is a way for us to diversify revenue streams and to attract new customers to the bank," Mitchell said.
Regions does not offer its own person-to-person payments program, so the Western Union services are a way to provide that capability, she said.
The bank's existing wire transfer services are used frequently by its corporate and private banking clients, Mitchell said, adding that the Western Union services are "more accessible for an average consumer."
More than 85% of Western Union's consumer-to-consumer transactions involved at least one non-U.S. location, Western Union said in its most recent annual report.
"Our agreement with Regions is part of Western Union's continued focus on identifying and driving the development of best-in-class services to expand the company's business to new consumer segments through Regions retail locations as well as through online channels," Stewart Stockdale, an executive vice president and president of global consumer financial services at Western Union, said in the release.
