Western Union has entered into an agreement with Austria-based energy group OMV to provide Money Transfer service at OMV retail locations.
Western Union’s national and international money transfer services will be offered at more than 1,800 OMV filling stations in Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Western Union said that the cooperation with OMV will add more than 300 new locations to its existing network of over 2,900 agent locations in Austria, and a total of more than 1,800 new locations to the existing agent network in Central and Eastern Europe.
Western Union added that the agreement with OMV will diversify its agent network into different classes of trade as part of its strategy to sign up retail locations under the European Union Payment Services Directive which allows non-bank entities to offer financial services under a payment institution’s license.
Hikmet Ersek, CEO-elect of Western Union, said: “OMV has an excellent network of filling stations throughout Central and Eastern Europe. We view the cooperation with OMV as a valuable opportunity to pursue further growth, add filling stations to our agent network in Europe and offer more customers the opportunity to experience the speed, convenience and reliability of the Western Union Money Transfer service.”
Gerhard Roiss, deputy chairman of OMV, said: “The introduction of the Western Union service will complement our strategy of providing a wide range of services to our customer base. We look forward to launching with Western Union over the next 18 months.”