"Western Union" invested over 5m USD in Serbia

The company for international money transfer "Western Union" announced today (July 30, 2009) that it had invested over 5m USD in the market of Serbia during eight years of operations.

- Since 2001, that money has been invested in organization of trainings for staff in banks and post offices, development of technology, that is, connection with the global network of companies, as well as promotion of the brand - Fabio DelGrosso, the country manager of “Western Union” for Adriatic region, said at the press conference.

According to his words, “Western Union” has made it possible for the citizens of Serbia to receive money from abroad at 1,800 locations in Serbia.

DelGrosso was unable to specify the exact number of money transfers from abroad to Serbia in the first half of the year, as well as how much money was sent from Diaspora through "Western Union", because the company does not provide such information for every individual country.

Regional Vice President for east Europe and the Community of Independent States, Jonathan Knaus, said that, according to the latest data provided by the Ministry of Diaspora of Serbia, the amount of annual money transfers to Serbia from abroad was about 5 billion EUR, half of which entered the country through non-transparent canals.

- Total value of money transfers in the world reached about 328m USD last year, and the World Bank estimates that the inflow of money through money transfers will drop by 7-10% in the period 2009-2011 because of the global economic crisis – said he.

Knaus said that that inflow of money would not be reduced because of smaller number of transactions, but because of the smaller average amount of transactions.

He added that the number of transfers in Europe had grown by 8% during the first six months of year 2009.

Knaus expressed expectation that the Government of Serbia would soon enable transfer of money from Serbia to foreign countries.

"Western Union", which was founded in 1851, enables transfer of money from 385,000 locations in 200 countries of the world.