Philippine National Bank (PNB) and Western Union have entered into an agreement to offer Western Union Money Transfer services at 311 PNB branches in the Philippines by July 2010 and at 87 offices across 12 countries in a phased approach.
PNB will offer Western Union Money Transfer services across three continents in 13 countries.
With an extensive urban and rural network in the Philippines, PNB’s global footprint mirrors countries popular with Filipinos working and living abroad permanently, including Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Guam, Hong Kong, Japan, Italy, Spain, Singapore, UK, and the US.
Eugene Acevedo, president and CEO of PNB, said: “It gives our consumers, especially Filipinos, the added comfort of familiarity of a home-grown bank to go with Western Union’s values of convenience, reliability and speed when sending money to family and loved ones.
“Our agreement with Western Union strengthens PNB as the bank of choice for both our local and global customers as we continually enhance the portfolio of financial services offered to our variety of customers.”
Drina Yue, managing director and senior vice president at Western Union Asia Pacific, said: “To add an iconic Filipino bank to Western Union’s global network of 420,000 agent locations in over 200 countries and territories is of strategic significance, particularly with the Philippines being the fourth largest remittance-receiving country in the world, according to the latest World Bank figures.”