Western Union has teamed up with Thunes, a cross-border payments network, to improve its offering to emerging markets.

The partnership will allow customers to send funds across borders, directly to mobile wallets. It’s hoped the move will promote financial inclusion for people who lack access to traditional financial services around the world.

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Steve Vickers, CEO of Thunes, explained: “Our payments platform seamlessly interconnects payment providers globally and enables interoperability between diverse payment systems, and by utilising our vast network Western Union Customers will now have more flexibility when sending money across borders.”

Speaking exclusively to FinTech Magazine at Money20/20, Sandra Yao, SVP Africa at Thunes, said: “We are very excited with this partnership. Obviously, digitalisation is a very big thing and it’s a very big move for Western Union to move from traditional cash payout now to the digital wallet payment. We’re happy to bring on board value-added service for them.”

Yao went on to emphasise the importance of what Thunes does for communities. “We improve efficiency and remove the difficulty of getting cash… we save a lot of time and add a lot of convenience.”