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Western Union Launches Maybank2u Mobile App in Malaysia

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In an effort to ramp up its digital money transfer service in Malaysia, Western Union Co. (WU - Free Report) along with Maybank has launched a mobile banking app named Maybank2u.

This move is in sync with the company’s continued efforts to make investments in the mobile payments space where it was not present until a few years ago. The synergistic effect of its investments and contribution to earnings are reflected in the company’s share price which is up 21.2% year to date compared with a gain of just 5.1% for the Zacks categorized Financial Transaction Services industry. We expect the company’s shares to continue outperforming its sector given its continued investments in the digital space.  

During the recent earnings conference call, the company announced that it continues to see tremendous growth from the mobile app. Also, it continues to expand its digital assets by rolling out mobile apps in Canada and additional countries in Europe. It has 16 transactional mobile apps in the market within 37 westernunion.com countries.

In addition, in the U.S. and the UK, the company has added a new omni-channel feature to its mobile apps. Customers can now fund 10 transactions from mobile apps via cards, accounts and cash. This new feature allows consumers to start transactions on their smartphones and then pay with cash at agent locations, adding convenience and reducing time for in-store transactions.

We expect more investments in this space which is set to boom as evident by the recent survey –– Western Union’s Payments 2016 Money Mindset Index. The study showed that 27% of all consumers and 48% of Gen Y consumers are expected to pay more bills through a mobile device.

Coming back to the news, Maybank2u will make it easy for Maybank customers to transfer money to more than 500,000 Western Union Agent locations in over 200 countries and territories. The app will also make money transfer service flexible with its 24X7 operation, allowing customers to transfer up to RM10,000 in a day.

This new service will put an end to Western Union Agent location visits for remittance of money. Money can now be remitted from any location via customers’ handheld.

Western Union carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the same space are Moneygram International Inc. , Global Payments Inc. (GPN - Free Report) and Vantiv Inc. . Each of these stocks carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Moneygram recorded positive surprises in three out of the last four quarters, with an average beat of 25.31%.

Vantiv recorded positive surprises in each of the last four quarters, with an average beat of 4.53%.
    
Global Payments also delivered positive surprises in each of the last four quarters, with an average beat of 7.07%.

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