Affinity Mobile has announced that adoption of the mobile wallet features enabled by its MADE platform is growing rapidly. According to Affinity, 'following the nationwide launch of Trumpet Mobile, Trumpet subscribers are quickly taking advantage of the mobile wallet capabilities with almost 50 percent of customers activating a mobile wallet at the point of sale.'   » Continue Reading

Trumpet Mobile and RadioShack Corporation have announced the nationwide availability of Trumpet Mobile's prepaid wireless services at more than 4,300 RadioShack neighborhood locations. "As one of the fastest growing prepaid wireless service providers, Trumpet Mobile is a pioneer in the prepaid mobile money transfer market, which allows subscribers the unique ability to make Western Union money transfers within the U.S. and to Latin America and the Caribbean from their mobile phones."   » Continue Reading

Sara Silver reports for the Wall St. Journal on plans by Western Union, RadioShack, and Affinity Mobile's Trumpet Mobile to introduce a new service that 'lets people send money through their cellphones.' Silver says that 'to use the service, people will have to go to one of RadioShack's more than 4,000 stores and sign up for a Trumpet pre-paid phone - a cellphone where customers pay in advance for minutes to be used over a fixed period of time. Customers can then load up to $200 onto their phones for transfer via Western Union's network either within the U.S. or internationally.' Earlier this month, Kimberly Johnson reported on Affinity Mobile for the Denver Post.

The GSM Association (GSMA), a global trade association representing over 700 GSM mobile phone operators, and Western Union have announced an agreement "to facilitate the development of cross-border mobile money transfer services."   » Continue Reading

Western Union and Yodlee have announced a program that the two companies says is "the first ever capable of linking financial institutions' online bill-payment services directly to Western Union's thousands of billers. These payment capabilities are featured in Yodlee's new BillPay PayItAll solution."   » Continue Reading

First Data Corp. today announced that it has completed the distribution of a tax-free special dividend to its shareholders consisting of approximately 765 million shares of common stock of The Western Union Company. First Data is distributing one share of common stock of Western Union for each share of First Data common stock to First Data shareholders as of September 22, 2006. As a result of that distribution, First Data will no longer own shares of Western Union, and Western Union will be an independent company. Western Union common stock has been authorized for listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and will trade under the symbol "WU."   » Continue Reading

Western Union has announced that it is beginning to make presentations to the equity investment community in preparation for its planned September 29, 2006 spin-off from First Data Corp. The meetings are being led by Christina Gold, President and Chief Executive Officer of Western Union, David Barnes, Executive Vice President of Finance and Strategic Development, and Scott Scheirman, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. The company's road show presentation is available at www.westernunion.com (PPT).

Western Union has announced the appointment of five new directors who will join Jack M. Greenberg, the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of McDonalds Corporation, Non-Executive Chairman of Western Union, and Christina A. Gold, Chief Executive Officer of the Western Union Company on the board of directors.   » Continue Reading

Michael Sisk writes for US Banker about First Data Corporation's strategy to spin off Western Union and focus on card processing. "The question is, can refocusing on the core processing business yield more growth for First Data than simply hanging on to Western Union?"

Western Union is currently running a promotion called the Western Union Million Dollar Giveaway and as part of the promotion of that has conducted a consumer survey asking over 1,000 consumers what they'd do if they won $1 million.   » Continue Reading

First Data Corp. has announced that Western Union has filed a Form 10 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the planned spin-off by First Data of the Western Union business.   » Continue Reading

Yvette Armendariz writes for the Arizona Republic about new ways to send remittances including one introduced Tuesday by Stored Value Cards Inc. called the Futura Maestro Prepaid Debit Card, issued by MetaBank under license from MasterCard.   » Continue Reading

First Data Corp. has posted the webcast of its investor call earlier today along with the accompanying Investor Presentation.

Betsy McKay reports on the story for the Wall St. Journal.

Reuters reports that Fitch Ratings has lowered FDC's issuer default rating as a result of today's announcement.

First Data Corp. has announced that it plans to separate its Western Union consumer payments business into an independent publicly traded company through a tax-free spin-off of 100% of Western Union to First Data shareholders.   » Continue Reading

Western Union Financial Services has signed a new, six-year agreement for money transfer services with Grupo Elektra, a leading retailer in Mexico.   » Continue Reading

Western Union Financial Services has announced an exclusive global agreement with Travelex, the world's largest non-bank foreign exchange payments company, whose locations will now only offer the Western Union Money Transfer service.   » Continue Reading