Western Union Re-Opens Outbound Money Transfers from Greece

Western Union has restored its outbound money transfer service from Greece, following its June suspension  due to a temporary shutdown of Greek banks amid the escalation of the country’s debt crisis.

The Greek government is imposing a monthly customer cap of €500, but Western Union customers can otherwise transfer money to more than 200 countries through the company’s agent, WorldBridge Payment Institution.

“Together with our Agents, we have been working hard to restore Western Union services fully in Greece. This has been a priority for us since the commencement of the enforced bank holiday in late June as we have sought to help our customers in Greece through this difficult financial time,” Giovanni Angelini, Western Union senior vice president and general manager for Europe, said in an Aug. 31 press release.

A new legal act by the Greek government allows some Bank of Greece-supervised money transfer operators like WorldBridge to resume outbound transfers under special conditions, such as a monthly limit on the number of outbound transactions per month.

The Colorado-based money transfer company lowly began reopening its services in early July, about a week after the suspension. About a month ago, it reinstated inbound transfers to Greece.

Transactions payable in euros through the Greece’s Postal Authority are not subject to Greek capital controls.