June 22, 2009; Western Union agent, Amstel train station, Amsterdam @ 10.00
Doesn't
look like much of an interesting picture, I admit. But in today's world
of online global banking and modern finance, a Western Union agent is a
place of incredible human drama.
Western Union has a venerable
more than 150 history. Created in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi
Valley Printing Telegraph Company, the name was changed to Western
Union in 1856 when the consolidation of several telegraph lines gave
the company its telegraphic reach into the most western parts of the
Union.
In its early decades the company did a brilliant job of
leveraging its core business - communication technology. Its technology
allowed it to introduce the first stock ticker in 1869 and then money
wire transfer in 1871. Other technological and user innovations followed
over the years: in 1914, Western Union introduced the first consumer
charge card; in 1943 Western Union pioneered the first commercial
inter-city microwave communications system; in 1974 the first
commercial satellite in the U.S. was introduced by Western Union.
But
imagine, what it must have been like for someone in 1871 to be able to
send information or money via wire transfer to every corner of the far flung growing
nation. Eventually, in 1980, the money transfer business overshadowed
the telegram business and is now Western Union's only raison d'être. In
2006, The Western Union Company handled 147 million
consumer-to-consumer money transfers and 249 million
consumer-to-business transactions.
Have you ever sent money via
WU? My guess is probably not or at least not many times if you have. In
today's world of electronic banking, credit and debit cards, global
banks and the like, who are these tens of millions of peoples making
hundreds of millions transactions?
I was there to send money to
a family in Cambodia. I first used the service in 2002 when I had to
send a friend in Asia some cash. Before that, I never had any reason to
have anything to do with Western Union. I have come to learn, from my
own experience and that of a friend who works in a
money-exchange/Western Union office that the large portion of business
comes from migrant workers, immigrants, asylum seekers, drug dealers,
bleary eyed backpackers and the occasional person as myself.
(Admittedly, I have in the past fallen into some of the other
categories, but never used Western Union then).
In a world of
advanced global electronic banking, where most of us never have to
think beyond a credit or debit card, ATM or bank counter transaction or
check, there is a huge part of the world, both geographically and in
human terms, where the primary alternative for moving money is a money transfer system established in 1871 and largely unchanged since then.
While
waiting for my turn, I was preceded by one guy who I am sure was some
Russian mafia type sending a large sum of cash back to Mother Russia.
There were also several immigrants, migrant workers or asylum seekers
sending money home to African countries or collecting money which
arrived from who knows where.
At Western Union you see the
migrant remittance phenomenon in all its glory. Migrant remittances exceed $300 billion annually and play an important role in sustaining certain
third and even second world economies. And most of which flows through Western Union or
in the case of countries with large Muslim populations, perhaps through
the incredibly fascinating and shadowy world of Al-Hawalah.
It
is actually amazing that 10 minutes after handing over our money and
paying the exorbitant 17% commission, we were called from our friend in
Cambodia that he had picked up the cash. Perhaps Western Union has an
even more golden future if our complex and electronic web based
financial system ever comes crashing down and we are all thrown back
into the dark ages.