Western Union Co. has rolled out a mobile Web version of its foreign-exchange payment service that enables small and midsize businesses with international ties to conduct transactions using smartphones.
Mobile access makes it easier for businesses to lock in an exchange rate at any time, Western Union said.
The service is available in countries where Western Union operates through its business solutions division, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the U.K. and the U.S.
"Market volatility is significant in so many regions around the world that currencies are always moving. This gives businesses an opportunity to make payments whenever they want and lock in a rate on the go," said Brian Harris, the division's vice president of marketing and product management.
Western Union announced the service March 2 and plans to extend it to more European countries, Harris said. The service currently supports more than 140 currencies.
Harris said the wine and spirits industry could find the mobile service useful because it often deals with imports. "If many of the products they are bringing in have a foreign-exchange component to it, they want to be able to take advantage of those [rates] when they are in their favor," Harris said.
The mobile service ties into Western Union's online offering, Harris said. A user's settings automatically carry over from the online portal. Recipient information is already present, as are the business' bank accounts used to deduct payments.
Users have 30 seconds to take advantage of a locked-in foreign exchange rate, which Harris said often changes by the second or minute. Once the rate is set, users may initiate the payment.
Western Union decided against using a downloadable smartphone application because industry research suggested mobile Web access was a simpler process, Harris said. Access to the service is "just a link to a mobile-friendly interface into an existing account they already have with Western Union," he said.
Executives increasingly are demanding mobile access, Aite Group research director Christine Barry said. "Businesses in general are really expecting technologies to match the patterns in their lives, and with mobile they are obviously taking them everywhere they go," she said.
In an Aite survey in October of 319 treasury executives worldwide, 32% of the executives said they would be willing to use a mobile device for advanced banking capabilities. "I would include Western Union's offering under that category," Barry said. Respondents said the benefits of this capability included anytime, anywhere access to banking information (39%) and the ability to make immediate decisions (38%).
