{"id":320943,"date":"2026-08-14T02:20:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T02:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/320943\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T02:20:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T02:20:17","slug":"attorney-general-james-and-the-new-york-state-department-of-financial-services-secure-continued-western-union-services-throughout-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/320943\/","title":{"rendered":"Attorney General James and the New York State Department of Financial Services Secure Continued Western Union Services Throughout New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2013 New York Attorney General Letitia James and the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) today secured commitments from The\u202fWestern Union Company (Western Union) to maintain its services for communities throughout New York<\/a> after acquiring International Money Express, Inc. (Intermex). Following DFS approval of Western Union\u2019s acquisition of Intermex, Western Union will ensure availability and fair pricing of critical financial services in New York. Western Union must maintain locations throughout the state, continue to offer remittance services, and cap fee increases for three years after it acquires Intermex, ensuring New Yorkers will continue to have reliable access to its services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Yorkers rely on Western Union to support their families and send money to loved ones across the globe,\u201d said\u00a0Attorney General James. \u201cWe are taking action to ensure that this merger does not threaten remittance services that working families need. I thank Governor Hochul and Acting Superintendent Asrow for their work to secure this plan to keep Western Union affordable and available to communities throughout New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery New Yorker deserves reliable and affordable access to the financial services they rely on to support their families,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Governor Hochul.\u00a0\u201cAs Western Union moves forward with this acquisition, my administration is ensuring that critical remittance services will remain available in communities across the state while protecting consumers from unfair fee increases. I thank Attorney General James for her partnership in delivering this important agreement for New Yorkers.”<\/p>\n

\u201cDFS\u00a0is\u00a0focused on\u00a0protecting\u00a0the availability of\u00a0affordable\u00a0and accessible financial services for\u00a0all New\u00a0Yorkers,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0DFS\u00a0Acting Superintendent Kaitlin Asrow.\u00a0\u201cThe commitment secured in partnership with the Attorney General\u2019s Office advances that work by ensuring New Yorkers have the same access to critical remittance services following the acquisition of Intermex.\u201d<\/p>\n

Western Union is a multinational financial services company that allows its customers to send money to more than 200 countries and territories through its website and apps, or over the counter at any of its roughly 3,000 licensed agent locations throughout New York. Intermex serves more than 6,000 New York consumers per year, allowing them to send money to more than 60 countries through its online apps and licensed retail locations, including branches in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Westchester County, and on Long Island. Intermex focuses on remittance services to Latin America and the Caribbean. After acquiring Intermex, Western Union will control a significant share of New York customers\u2019 retail remittances to six countries: Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru.<\/p>\n

Under\u00a0agreements\u00a0with\u00a0DFS and\u00a0the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), Western Union is barred from using its acquisition of Intermex to reduce services available to New York consumers\u00a0who remit money to those six countries\u00a0for three years.\u00a0Intermex\u2019s\u00a0locations will remain open and transition to Western Union branding. Specifically,\u00a0Western Union must take the following actions:<\/p>\n

Maintain\u00a0at least\u00a0the same physical presence in\u00a0ZIP\u00a0codes where Intermex locations are\u00a0operating\u00a0at\u00a0the time of acquisition;\u00a0Offer retail remittance services for New York customers to Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru at each of those locations;\u00a0andLimit price increases on retail services to only those that keep pace with inflation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Western Union will also provide reports to DFS for three years that include:<\/p>\n

A\u00a0list of service terminations at retail locations and reasons for termination;\u00a0All customer communications\u00a0regarding\u00a0service availability and pricing; and\u00a0The number and amount of retail and digital remittance services at each location by method and country of destination, as well as the fee schedule for those services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Western Union must also pay for an independent, DFS-approved auditor to conduct an audit one year after the acquisition to ensure compliance with the conditions of the\u00a0agreement.\u00a0As its regulator, DFS will continue to supervise the conduct of Western Union including its compliance with the agreement.\u00a0The OAG will be able to take enforcement action or extend the terms of the\u00a0agreement\u00a0if Western Union is found to have breached its terms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For New York, this matter was handled by\u00a0Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Cole, Deputy Bureau Chief Amy McFarlane, and Bureau Chief Elinor Hoffmann, all of the Antitrust Bureau. Assistance was provided by Chief Economist Chitra Marti. The Antitrust Bureau is a part of the Division for Economic Justice, which is overseen by Chief Deputy Attorney General Chris D\u2019Angelo and First Deputy Attorney General Meghan Faux.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2013 New York Attorney General Letitia James and the New York State Department of Financial Services…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-320943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}