Ayeyarwady Bank Limited Offers Western Union(R) Services in Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar, July 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Ayeyarwady Bank Limited (AYA Bank) and The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a leader in global payment services, jointly launched Western Union^® Money Transfer^SM services at all of the 38 AYA Bank branches in Myanmar.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130722/HK50602 )

Consumers can receive their Western Union^® transactions at over 280 locations (Note 1) in Myanmar, covering 13 of the 14 states and divisions, within minutes (Note 2) after it is sent.  

As part of the agreement, AYA Bank will add 60 bank branches to its retail network within two years, with all of them offering the Western Union Money Transfer services.

"We welcome AYA Bank and are delighted to have this fast-growing financial institution joining and expanding our global Agent network to help bring the world to every corner of Myanmar," said Chris Cruzado, regional vice president, Oceania & Indochina, Western Union.  "Together, we will allow millions of Myanmar citizens here and overseas to access remittances with speed, reliability and convenience."

"We are honored to collaborate and be associated with a strong global brand Western Union, offering our customers in Myanmar a much-needed service to receive international remittances from over 200 countries and territories (Note 1) around the world," said U Phyo Aung, Chief Executive Officer, AYA Bank.

"The addition of the Western Union service offering to AYA Bank's full range of banking products and services will help further our goals to better serve our customers and sustain long-term growth for the bank and our stakeholders."

Since Western Union service launch in Myanmar in January this year, consumers from 107 countries and territories including Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, UAE, US, UK and other European countries, have used Western Union to send money into Myanmar.

Western Union was the first global money transfer operator to offer international money transfer services in Myanmar after investment and trade sanctions were eased in 2012.

Notes:

About Western Union

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a leader in global payment services. Together with its Vigo, Orlandi Valuta, Pago Facil and Western Union Business Solutions branded payment services, Western Union provides consumers and businesses with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send and receive money around the world, to send payments and to purchase money orders. As of March 31, 2013, the Western Union, Vigo and Orlandi Valuta branded services were offered through a combined network of approximately 515,000 agent locations in 200 countries and territories and approximately 100,000 ATMs. In 2012, The Western Union Company completed 231 million consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, moving US$79 billion of principal between consumers, and 432 million business payments. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.  

About Ayeyarwady Bank

Ayeyarwady Bank received its banking license from the Central Bank of Myanmar on 2 July 2010 and began operations on 11 August 2010. The bank is a full service bank and has is a license authorized dealer bank handling both domestic and international banking services.

Since its inception the bank has grown steadily with the number of branches increased to 41, ATMs to 50 and customer deposits growing exponentially to over USD400 million as at July 2013. This is testimony to the bank's success in winning over the confidence among the public. It is now considered one of the leading banks in Myanmar.

The bank continues to extend its branch network throughout Myanmar focusing on building relationship with customers, ensuring excellent customer service and to provide the full range of both domestic and international products and services coupled with development to of electronic channels. To support the business strategy, the bank leverages on technology as the enabler, invest in its human capital and to continue strengthening the governance, risk and compliance structure as a measure to ensure balance and sustain growth.

AYA mission is to be recognized as the leading bank in Myanmar through pursuit of excellent and long term sustainable growth for the bank and its stakeholders.

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SOURCE Western Union