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Item 1A. Risk Factors

The following is a summary of certain key risk factors with respect to our Company. You should read this summary together with the more detailed descriptions of risks relating to our Company below.

Risks Relating to Our Business and Industry

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Demand for our services is dependent on a number of factors that could be materially impacted by adverse changes in the global economy, including related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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We operate in highly competitive and rapidly evolving industries and face competition from a wide variety of service providers.

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Our business depends on consumer confidence, which could be adversely affected by a number of factors, many of which are outside of our control.

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Our Consumer-to-Consumer business is highly dependent on our ability to maintain our agent network under terms consistent with or more advantageous than those currently in place.

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Our industry is subject to rapid and significant technological changes.

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We are a global company and accordingly are subject to a number of risks related to our international operations.

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As a company that transfers and retains large amounts of confidential and personal information, we are exposed to risks relating to ensuring such information is not improperly used or disclosed.

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Our ability to provide reliable service largely depends on the efficient and uninterrupted operation of our computer information systems and those of our service providers.

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We may not realize all of the anticipated benefits from restructuring and related initiatives.

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We face credit, liquidity, and fraud risks from our agents, consumers, businesses, and third-party processors.

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Changes in tax laws, or their interpretation, or unfavorable resolution of tax contingencies could adversely affect our tax expense.

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Our ability to remain competitive depends in part on our ability to protect our trademarks, patents, copyrights, and other intellectual property rights and to defend ourselves against potential intellectual property infringement claims.

Risks Relating to Our Regulatory and Litigation Environment

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Our services are subject to increasingly strict legal and regulatory requirements, including those intended to help detect and prevent money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, and other illicit activity.

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The laws and regulations governing our business are frequently changing and evolving and could require changes in our business model and increase our costs of operations.

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The changes in our compliance program required by the consent orders and settlement agreements to which we are party have had, and may continue to have, adverse effects on our business.

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Western Union is the subject of litigation, including purported class action litigation, and regulatory actions, which could result in material settlements, judgments, fines, or penalties.

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There are many factors that affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows, some of which are beyond our control. These risks include, but are not limited to, the risks described in detail below. Such risks are grouped according to:

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Risks Relating to Our Business and Industry; and

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Risks Relating to Our Regulatory and Litigation Environment

You should carefully consider all of these risks.

Risks Relating to Our Business and Industry

Risks Relating to our Business Model and Competition

Global economic downturns or slower growth or declines in the money transfer, payment service, and other markets in which we operate, including downturns or declines related to interruptions in migration patterns, and difficult conditions in global financial markets and financial market disruptions could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

The global economy has experienced in recent years, and may experience, downturns, volatility and disruption, such as the COVID-19 pandemic (see risk factor “The COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve and negatively impact our business, and the extent to which it will further impact our business depends on future developments, which remain highly uncertain and difficult to predict. The effects of the pandemic have had an adverse effect and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows in the future.”), and we face certain risks relating to such events, including:

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Demand for our services could soften, including due to low consumer confidence, high unemployment, changes in foreign exchange rates, reduced global trade, including from trade disruptions or trade restrictions, or other events, such as civil unrest, war, terrorism, natural disasters, including those related to climate change, or public health emergencies or epidemics.

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Our Consumer-to-Consumer money transfer business relies in large part on migration, which brings workers to countries with greater economic opportunities than those available in their native countries. A significant portion of money transfers are sent by international migrants. Migration is affected by (among other factors) overall economic conditions, the availability of job opportunities, changes in immigration laws, restrictions on immigration and travel, and political or other events (such as civil unrest, war, terrorism, natural disasters, or public health emergencies or epidemics) that would make it more difficult for workers to migrate or work abroad. Changes to these factors could adversely affect our remittance volume and could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

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Many of our consumers work in industries that may be impacted by deteriorating economic conditions more quickly or significantly than other industries. The prospect of reduced job opportunities, especially in retail, healthcare, construction, hospitality, and technology industries, or weakness in the regional economies could adversely affect the number of money transfer transactions, the principal amounts transferred and correspondingly our results of operations. If general market softness in the economies of countries important to migrant workers occurs, our results of operations could be adversely impacted. Additionally, if our consumer transactions decline, if the amount of money that consumers send per transaction declines, or if migration patterns shift due to weak or deteriorating economic conditions or immigration laws, our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows may be adversely affected.

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Our agents or clients could experience reduced sales or business as a result of a deterioration in economic conditions. As a result, our agents could reduce their numbers of locations or hours of operation or cease doing business altogether. Businesses using our services may make fewer cross-currency payments or may have fewer customers making payments to them through us, particularly businesses in those industries that may be more affected by an economic downturn.

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Our Business Solutions business is heavily dependent on global trade. A downturn in global trade, including as a result of increased tensions regarding trade relationships between countries, or the failure of long-term import growth rates to return to historic levels could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Additionally, as customer hedging activity in our Business Solutions business generally varies with currency volatility, we have experienced and may experience in the future lower foreign exchange revenues in periods of lower currency volatility.

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Our exposure to receivables from our agents, consumers, and businesses could impact us. For more information on this risk, see risk factor “We face credit, liquidity, and fraud risks from our agents, consumers, businesses, and third-party processors that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.”

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The market value of the securities in our investment portfolio may substantially decline. The impact of that decline in value may adversely affect our liquidity, financial condition, and results of operations.

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The third-party service providers on whom we depend may experience difficulties in their businesses, which may impair their ability to provide services to us and have a potential impact on our own business. The impact of a change or temporary stoppage of services may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

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The counterparties to the derivative financial instruments that we use to reduce our exposure to various market risks, including changes in interest rates and foreign exchange rates, may fail to honor their obligations, which could expose us to risks we had sought to mitigate. This includes the exposure generated by the Business Solutions business, where we write derivative contracts to our customers as part of our cross-currency payments business, and we typically hedge the net exposure through offsetting contracts with established financial institution counterparties. That failure could have an adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

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We may be unable to refinance our existing indebtedness or finance our obligations to pay tax on certain of our previously undistributed earnings pursuant to United States tax reform legislation enacted in December 2017 (the “Tax Act”) on favorable terms, as such amounts become due, or we may have to refinance or obtain new financing on unfavorable terms, which could require us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations to payments on our debt or tax obligations, thereby reducing funds available for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, share repurchases, dividends, and other purposes.

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Our revolving credit facility with a consortium of banks is one source for funding liquidity needs and also backs our commercial paper program. If any of the banks participating in our credit facility fails to fulfill its lending commitment to us, our short-term liquidity and ability to support borrowings under our commercial paper program could be adversely affected.

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Banks upon which we rely to conduct our business could fail or be unable to satisfy their obligations to us. This could lead to our inability to access funds and/or credit losses for us and could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business.

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Insurers we utilize to mitigate our exposures to litigation and other risks may be unable to or refuse to satisfy their obligations to us, which could have an adverse effect on our liquidity, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

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If market disruption or volatility occurs, we could experience difficulty in accessing capital on favorable terms, and our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows could be adversely impacted.

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We face competition from global and niche or corridor money transfer providers, United States and international banks, card associations, card-based payments providers, and a number of other types of service providers, including electronic, mobile and internet-based services, and from digital currencies, including cryptocurrencies and related protocols, and other innovations in technology and business models. Our future growth depends on our ability to compete effectively in the industry.

Money transfer and business payments are highly competitive industries which include service providers from a variety of financial and non-financial business groups. Our competitors include consumer money transfer companies, banks and credit unions (including interbank partnerships), card associations, web-based services, mobile money transfer services, payment processors, card-based payments providers such as issuers of e-money, travel cards or stored-value cards, informal remittance systems, automated teller machine providers and operators, phone payment systems (including mobile phone networks), postal organizations, retailers, check cashers, mail and courier services, currency exchanges, and digital currencies, including cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency exchanges. These services are differentiated by features and functionalities such as brand recognition, customer service, trust and reliability, distribution network and channel options, convenience, price, speed, variety of payment methods, service offerings and innovation. Our business, distribution network and channel options, such as our digital channels, have been and may continue to be impacted by increased competition, including from new competitors and the consolidation of competitors and the expansion of their services, which could adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. For example, we have experienced increased competition in money transfers sent and received within the United States from competitors that do not charge a fee to send or receive money through bank accounts. The potential international expansion of these competitors could represent significant competition to us.

Our future growth depends on our ability to compete effectively in money transfer and business payments. For example, if we fail to price our services appropriately, consumers may not use our services, which could adversely affect our business and financial results. In addition, we have historically implemented and will likely continue to implement price reductions from time to time in response to competition and other factors. Price reductions generally reduce margins and adversely affect financial results in the short term and may also adversely affect financial results in the long term if transaction volumes do not increase sufficiently. Further, failure to compete on service differentiation and service quality could significantly affect our future growth potential and results of operations.

As noted below under risk factor “Risks associated with operations outside the United States and foreign currencies could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows,” many of our agents outside the United States are national post offices. These entities are often governmental organizations that may enjoy special privileges or protections that could allow them to simultaneously develop their own money transfer businesses. International postal organizations could agree to establish a money transfer network among themselves. Due to the size of these organizations and the number of locations they have, any such network could represent significant competition to us.

If customer confidence in our business or in consumer money transfer and payment service providers generally deteriorates, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows could be adversely affected.

Our business is built on customer confidence in our brands and our ability to provide fast, reliable money transfer and payment services. Erosion in customer confidence in our business, or in consumer money transfer and payment service providers as a means to transfer money, could adversely impact transaction volumes which would in turn adversely impact our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

A number of factors could adversely affect customer confidence in our business, or in consumer money transfer and payment service providers generally, many of which are beyond our control, and could have an adverse impact on our results of operations. These factors include:

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changes or proposed changes in laws or regulations or regulator or judicial interpretation thereof that have the effect of making it more difficult or less desirable to transfer money using consumer money transfer and payment service providers, including additional consumer due diligence, identification, reporting, and recordkeeping requirements;

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the quality of our services and our customer experience, and our ability to meet evolving customer needs and preferences, including consumer preferences related to our westernunion.com and other Digital Money Transfer services;

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failure of our agents, their subagents, our vendors, or other partners to deliver services in accordance with our requirements;

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reputational concerns resulting from actual or perceived events, including those related to fraud, consumer protection, data breaches, or other matters;

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actions by federal, state or foreign regulators that interfere with our ability to transfer consumers’ money reliably, for example, attempts to seize money transfer funds, or limit our ability to or prohibit us from transferring money in certain corridors;

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federal, state or foreign legal requirements, including those that require us to provide consumer or transaction data either pursuant to requirements under the Joint Settlement Agreements or other requirements or to a greater extent than is currently required;

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any significant interruption in our systems, including by unauthorized entry and computer viruses, ransomware, fire, natural disaster, power loss, telecommunications failure, terrorism, vendor failure, or disruptions in our workforce; and

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any breach of our computer systems or other data storage facilities, or of certain of our third-party providers, resulting in a compromise of personal or other data.

Many of our money transfer consumers are migrants. Consumer advocacy groups or governmental agencies could consider migrants to be disadvantaged and entitled to protection, enhanced consumer disclosure, or other different treatment. If consumer advocacy groups are able to generate widespread support for actions that are detrimental to our business, then our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows could be adversely affected.

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If we are unable to maintain our agent, subagent, or global business relationships under terms acceptable to us or consistent with those currently in place, including due to increased costs or loss of business as a result of increased compliance requirements or difficulty for us, our agents, or their subagents in establishing or maintaining relationships with banks needed to conduct our services, or if our agents or their subagents fail to comply with our business and technology standards and contract requirements, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows would be adversely affected.

Most of our Consumer-to-Consumer revenue is derived through our agent network. Some of our international agents have subagent relationships in which we are not directly involved. If, due to competition or other reasons, agents or their subagents decide to leave our network, or if we are unable to sign new agents or maintain our agent network under terms acceptable to us or consistent with those currently in place, or if our agents are unable to maintain relationships with or sign new subagents, our revenue and profits may be adversely affected. Agent attrition might occur for a number of reasons, including a competitor engaging an agent, an agent’s dissatisfaction with its relationship with us or the revenue derived from that relationship, an agent’s or its subagents’ unwillingness or inability to comply with our standards or legal requirements, including those related to compliance with anti-money laundering regulations, anti-fraud measures, or agent registration and monitoring requirements or increased costs or loss of business as a result of difficulty for us, our agents, or their subagents in establishing or maintaining relationships with banks needed to conduct our services. For example, the Joint Settlement Agreements and the NYDFS Consent Order subjected us to heightened requirements relating to agent oversight, which resulted in and may continue to result in agent attrition. Further, certain agents decided to leave our network due to reputational concerns related to the Joint Settlement Agreements and the NYDFS Consent Order. In addition, agents may generate fewer transactions or less revenue for various reasons, including increased competition, political unrest, changes in the economy, or factors impacting our agents’ ability to settle with us, and the cost of maintaining agent or subagent locations has increased and may continue to increase because of enhanced compliance efforts or changes to compliance requirements. Because an agent is a third-party that engages in a variety of activities in addition to providing our services, it may encounter business difficulties unrelated to its provision of our services, which could cause the agent to reduce its number of locations, hours of operation, or cease doing business altogether.

Changes in laws regulating competition or in the interpretation of those laws could undermine our ability to enter into or maintain our exclusive arrangements with our current and prospective agents. See risk factor “Regulatory initiatives and changes in laws, regulations, and industry practices and standards affecting us, our agents or their subagents, or the banks with which we or our agents maintain bank accounts needed to provide our services could require changes in our business model and increase our costs of operations, which could adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations, and liquidity” below. In addition, certain of our agents and subagents have refused to enter into exclusive arrangements in recent years,including a significant agent in the United States. The inability to enter into exclusive arrangements or to maintain our exclusive rights in agent contracts in certain situations could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows by, for example, allowing competitors to benefit from the goodwill associated with the Western Union brand at our agent locations.

In Business Solutions, we facilitate payment and foreign exchange solutions, primarily cross-border, cross-currency transactions, for small and medium size enterprises and other organizations and individuals. In our various bill payment services, we provide services for making one-time or recurring payments from consumers to businesses and other organizations, including utilities, auto finance companies, mortgage servicers, financial service providers and government agencies. Our relationships with these businesses and other organizations are a core component of our payment services, and we derive a substantial portion of our revenue from payment services through these relationships. Increased regulation and compliance requirements are impacting these businesses by making it more costly for us to provide our services or by making it more cumbersome for businesses or consumers to do business with us. We have also had difficulty establishing or maintaining banking relationships needed to conduct our services due to banks’ policies. If we are unable to maintain our current business or banking relationships or establish new relationships under terms acceptable to us or consistent with those currently in place, our ability to continue to offer our services may be adversely impacted, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

As a result of offering our services, our agents may be subject to various taxes, as governments outside the United States have viewed and may continue to view our agents’ services as subject to income, withholding, and other taxes. Any such taxes that are levied on our agents could make it less desirable for agents to offer our services, which could result in increased agent attrition, agents ceasing to offer some of our services, or increased costs to maintain our agent network, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and cash flows.

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Our ability to adopt new technology and develop and gain market acceptance of new and enhanced products and services in response to changing industry and regulatory standards and evolving customer needs poses a challenge to our business.

Our industry is subject to rapid and significant technological changes, with the constant introduction of new and enhanced products and services and evolving industry and regulatory standards and consumer needs and preferences. Our ability to enhance our current products and services and introduce new products and services that address these changes has a significant impact on our ability to be successful. We actively seek to respond in a timely manner to changes in customer (both consumer and business) and agent needs and preferences, technology advances, and new and enhanced products and services such as technology-based money transfer and Business Solutions payment services, including internet, digital wallet, other mobile money transfer services, and digital currencies, including cryptocurrencies. Failure to respond timely and well to these challenges could adversely impact our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Further, even if we respond well to these challenges, the business and financial models offered by many of these alternative, more technology-reliant means of money transfer and electronic payment solutions may be less advantageous to us than our traditional cash/agent model or our current electronic money transfer model.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve and negatively impact our business, and the extent to which it will further impact our business depends on future developments, which remain highly uncertain and difficult to predict. The effects of the pandemic have had an adverse effect and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows in the future.

The global spread of COVID-19 has created significant macroeconomic uncertainty, volatility, and disruption for approximately two years. In response, many governments implemented policies intended to stop or slow the further spread of the disease, such as lockdowns, shelter-in-place orders, or restricted movement guidelines, and these measures have been in place for significant periods of time, have been relaxed and reinstated to varying degrees in various locations, and may be reinstated again in the future. These policies have resulted in lower consumer and commercial activity across many markets in which we operate and the closure of, or staffing shortages at, Western Union locations and agent locations in certain areas. As a result, customers have experienced and may continue to experience reduced access to, or desire or ability to use, retail agent locations. Additionally, as money transfer services offered through our retail agent locations contribute a majority of our Consumer-to-Consumer revenue, our business has been and may continue to be negatively impacted by these temporary closures, staffing shortages, or shifts in customer behavior to a greater extent than others in our industry who are not as reliant on retail locations. Further, the economic impact of the pandemic included a global economic downturn, including high unemployment, lower consumer and commercial activity, and consumer behavioral changes that negatively impacted and may continue to negatively impact our transaction volumes. While the duration and severity of this pandemic and related impacts have varied across time and locations and remain uncertain, our results of operations in future periods may also be negatively impacted by COVID-19.

The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and are difficult to predict, including, but not limited to, the duration and geographic spread of the pandemic, its severity, the occurrence of additional waves, variants, or periods of increased spread of COVID-19 in key markets in which we operate, the availability and effectiveness of vaccines (including with respect to new variants), the actions to contain the virus or treat its impact, including new or additional restrictions imposed by governments, its effects on the broader economy, including supply chains, employment levels,consumer behavior and demand, inflation, the impacts of these factors in turn on migrants and immigration patterns and regulations, how quickly and to what extent normal economic and operating conditions can resume and be sustained, and our ability to adapt to changing conditions. Even after the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, we may continue to experience materially adverse impacts to our business as a result of its global economic impact, including any recession, economic downturn, inflationary pressures, changes in customer behavior or demand, or increased unemployment that has occurred or may occur in the future.

Although the pandemic has been ongoing for approximately two years, its course and impact on the global economy and our business has been unpredictable and has challenged industry forecasts, including from the World Bank, and the ultimate impact of the pandemic or a similar health epidemic is highly uncertain and subject to change. We do not yet know the full extent of the impacts on our business, our operations, or the global economy as a whole. However, the effects have had an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows and could have a material adverse effect in the future.

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Risks associated with operations outside the United States and foreign currencies could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

A substantial portion of our revenue is generated in currencies other than the United States dollar. As a result, we are subject to risks associated with changes in the value of our revenues and net monetary assets denominated in foreign currencies. For example, a considerable portion of our revenue is generated in the euro. In an environment of a rising United States dollar relative to the euro, the value of our euro-denominated revenue, operating income and net monetary assets would be reduced when translated into United States dollars for inclusion in our financial statements. Some of these adverse financial effects may be partially mitigated by foreign currency hedging activities. In an environment of a declining United States dollar relative to the euro, some of the translation benefits on our reported financial results could be limited by the impact of foreign currency hedging activities. We are also subject to changes in the value of other foreign currencies.

We operate in almost all developing markets throughout the world. In many of these markets, our foreign currency exposure is limited because most transactions are receive transactions, and we currently reimburse the substantial majority of our agents in United States dollars, Mexican pesos, or euros for the payment of these transactions. However, in certain of these developing markets we settle transactions in local currencies and generate revenue from send transactions. Our exposure to foreign currency fluctuations in those markets is increased as these fluctuations impact our revenues and operating income.

We have additional foreign exchange risk and associated foreign exchange risk management requirements due to the nature of our Business Solutions business. The significant majority of our Business Solutions business relates to exchanges of currency at spot rates, which enable customers to make cross-currency payments. In certain countries, this business also writes foreign currency forward and option contracts for our customers. The majority of these derivative contracts have a duration at inception of less than one year. The credit risk associated with our derivative contracts increases when foreign currency exchange rates move against our customers, possibly impacting their ability to honor their obligations to deliver currency to us or to maintain appropriate collateral with us. Business Solutions aggregates its foreign exchange exposures arising from customer contracts, including the derivative contracts described above, and hedges the resulting net currency risks by entering into offsetting contracts with established financial institution counterparties. However, these contracts do not eliminate all of the risks related to fluctuating foreign currency rates. If we are unable to obtain offsetting positions, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows could be adversely affected.

A substantial portion of our revenue is generated outside the United States. We utilize a variety of planning and financial strategies to help ensure that our worldwide cash is available where needed, including decisions related to the amounts, timing, and manner by which cash is repatriated or otherwise made available from our international subsidiaries. Changes in the amounts, timing, and manner by which cash is repatriated (or deemed repatriated) or otherwise made available from our international subsidiaries, including changes arising from new legal or tax rules, disagreements with legal or tax authorities concerning existing rules that are ultimately resolved in their favor, or changes in our operations or business, could result in material adverse effects on our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows including our ability to pay future dividends or make share repurchases. For further discussion regarding the risk that our future effective tax rates could be adversely impacted by changes in tax laws, both domestically and internationally, see risk factor “Changes in tax laws, or their interpretation, and unfavorable resolution of tax contingencies could adversely affect our tax expense” below.

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Money transfers and payments to, from, within, or between countries may be limited or prohibited by law. At times in the past, we have been required to cease operations in particular countries due to political uncertainties or government restrictions imposed by foreign governments or the United States. Government sanctions imposed with respect to Russia and Ukraine in February 2022 are impacting our ability to offer services in the region, and additional sanctions could be imposed in the future. Further instability or tension in Russia, Ukraine, and the surrounding region could also cause us to adjust our operating model, which would increase our costs of operations. Occasionally agents or their subagents have been required by their regulators to cease offering our services; see risk factor “Regulatory initiatives and changes in laws, regulations, and industry practices and standards affecting us, our agents or their subagents, or the banks with which we or our agents maintain bank accounts needed to provide our services could require changes in our business model and increase our costs of operations, which could adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations, and liquidity” below. Additionally, economic or political instability or natural disasters may make money transfers to, from, within, or between particular countries difficult or impossible, such as when banks are closed, when currency devaluation makes exchange rates difficult to manage or when natural disasters or civil unrest makes access to agent locations unsafe. These risks could negatively impact our ability to offer our services, to make payments to or receive payments from international agents or our subsidiaries or to recoup funds that have been advanced to international agents or are held by our subsidiaries, and as a result could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. In addition, the general state of telecommunications and infrastructure in some lesser developed countries, including countries where we have a large number of transactions, creates operational risks for us and our agents that generally are not present in our operations in the United States and other more developed countries.

Many of our agents outside the United States are post offices, which are often owned and operated by national governments. These governments may decide to change the terms under which they allow post offices to offer remittances and other financial services. For example, governments may decide to separate financial service operations from postal operations, or mandate the creation or privatization of a “post bank,” which could result in the loss of agent locations, or they may require multiple service providers in their network. These changes could have an adverse effect on our ability to distribute or offer our services in countries that are material to our business.

We face credit, liquidity and fraud risks from our agents, consumers, businesses, and third-party processors that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

The majority of our Consumer-to-Consumer money transfer activity and our walk-in bill payment and money order activity is conducted through agents that provide our services to consumers at their retail locations. These agents sell our services, collect funds from consumers, and are required to pay the proceeds from these transactions to us. As a result, we have credit exposure to our agents. In some countries, our agent networks include superagents that establish subagent relationships; these agents must collect funds from their subagents in order to pay us. We are generally not insured against credit losses, except in certain circumstances related to agent theft or fraud. If an agent becomes insolvent, files for bankruptcy, commits fraud or otherwise fails to pay money order, money transfer or payment services proceeds to us, we must nonetheless pay the money order or complete the money transfer or payment services on behalf of the consumer.

The liquidity of our agents and other parties we transact with directly, including merchant acquirers, is necessary for our business to remain strong and to continue to provide our services. If our agents or other partners fail to settle with us in a timely manner, our liquidity could be affected.

From time to time, we have made, and may in the future make, advances to our agents. We generally owe settlement funds payable to these agents that offset these advances. However, the failure of these borrowing agents to repay these advances constitutes a credit risk to us.

We are exposed to credit risk in our Business Solutions business relating to: (i) derivatives written by us to our customers and (ii) the extension of trade credit when transactions are paid to recipients prior to our receiving cleared funds from the sending customers. The credit risk associated with our derivative contracts increases when foreign currency exchange rates move against our customers, possibly impacting their ability to honor their obligations to deliver currency to us or to maintain appropriate collateral with us. If a customer becomes insolvent, files for bankruptcy, commits fraud or otherwise fails to pay us, we may be exposed to the value of an offsetting position with a financial institution counterparty for the derivatives or may bear financial risk for those receivables where we have extended trade credit.

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In many countries, we offer consumers the ability to transfer money utilizing their bank account or credit or debit card via websites and mobile devices. These transactions have experienced and continue to experience a greater risk of fraud and higher fraud losses than transactions initiated at agent locations. Additionally, money transfers funded by ACH, or similar methods, are not preauthorized by the sender’s bank and carry the risk that the account may not exist or have sufficient funds to cover the transaction. We apply verification and other tools to help authenticate transactions and protect against fraud. However, these tools are not always successful in protecting us against fraud. As the merchant of these transactions, we may bear the financial risk of the full amount sent in some of the fraudulent transactions. Issuers of credit and debit cards may also incur losses due to fraudulent transactions through our distribution channels and may elect to block transactions by their cardholders in these channels with or without notice. We may be subject to additional fees or penalties if the amount of chargebacks exceeds a certain percentage of our transaction volume. Such fees and penalties increase over time if we do not take effective action to reduce chargebacks below the threshold, and if chargeback levels are not ultimately reduced to acceptable levels, our merchant accounts could be suspended or revoked, which would adversely affect our results of operations.

To help ensure availability of our worldwide cash where needed, we utilize a variety of planning and financial strategies, including decisions related to the amounts, timing and manner by which cash is repatriated or otherwise made available from our international subsidiaries. These decisions can influence our overall tax rate and impact our total liquidity. Our overall liquidity may also be impacted by regulations or their interpretations that, if fully enacted or implemented, could require us to register as a swap dealer and post collateral in connection with our derivative financial instruments used to hedge our exposures arising in connection with changes to foreign currency exchange rates.

Risks Relating to Cybersecurity and Third-Party Vendors

Breaches of our information security safeguards could adversely affect our ability to operate and could damage our reputation and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

As part of our business, we collect, transfer, and retain confidential and personal information about consumers, business customer representatives, employees, applicants, agents and other individuals. With our services being offered in more than 200 countries and territories, these activities are subject to laws and regulations in the United States and many other jurisdictions; see risk factor “Current and proposed regulation addressing consumer privacy and data use and security could increase our costs of operations, which could adversely affect our operations, results of operations, and financial condition” below. The requirements imposed by these laws and regulations, which often differ materially among the many jurisdictions in which we operate and may impact our business operations, are designed to protect the privacy and security of personal information, to prevent that information from being inappropriately accessed, used or disclosed, and to protect financial services providers and other regulated entities and their customers, as well as information technology systems, from cyber attacks. Although we strive to develop and maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to comply with applicable legal requirements, it is nonetheless possible that hackers, employees acting contrary to our policies, or others could circumvent these safeguards to improperly access our systems or documents, or the systems or documents of our business partners, agents, or service providers, as well as to improperly access, obtain, misuse, or disclose sensitive business information or personal information about our consumers, business customer representatives, employees, applicants, agents or others. It is also possible that any of our third-party service providers or agents could experience a cybersecurity incident or intentionally or inadvertently use, disclose, or make available sensitive business or personal information to unauthorized parties in violation of law or its contract with us. Such risk of a third-party service provider or agent's cybersecurity or other data incident is significant as much of our data and our customers' data is collected and stored by our agents and other third parties, including providers of cloud-based software services. Security incidents have the potential to impose material costs on the Company and, despite measures that the Company takes to prevent and mitigate such incidents, there can be no assurance that security incidents will not occur in the future. The methods used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service or sabotage systems are also constantly changing and evolving and may be difficult to anticipate or to detect for significant periods of time. Additionally, transactions undertaken through our websites or other digital channels may create risks of fraud, hacking, unauthorized access or acquisition, and other deceptive practices. Any security incident resulting in a compromise of sensitive business information or the personal information of consumers, business customer representatives, employees, applicants, agents or other individuals, could result in material costs to us and require us to notify impacted individuals, and in some cases regulators, of a possible or actual incident, expose us to regulatory enforcement actions, including substantial fines, limit our ability to provide services, subject us to litigation, damage our reputation, and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

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Interruptions in our systems, including as a result of cyber attacks, or disruptions in our workforce may have a significant adverse effect on our business.

Our ability to provide reliable service largely depends on the efficient and uninterrupted operation of our computer information systems and those of our service providers. Any significant interruptions could harm our business and reputation and result in a loss of business. These systems and operations could be exposed to damage or interruption from unauthorized entry and computer viruses, ransomware, fire, natural disaster, power loss, telecommunications failure, war, terrorism, vendor failure, or other causes, many of which may be beyond our control or that of our service providers. The frequency and intensity of weather events related to climate change are increasing, which could increase the likelihood and severity of natural disasters as well as related damage and business interruption. Additionally, any significant damage or interruptions in the computer information systems of our agents or other partners could result in a disruption in providing our services to consumers at their locations. Further, we and our vendors have been, and continue to be, the subject of cyber attacks, including distributed denial of service and ransomware attacks. These attackers and attacks, which may in some cases be initiated by nation-states, are increasingly sophisticated and primarily aimed at interrupting our business, exposing us to financial losses, or exploiting information security vulnerabilities. Due to the political uncertainty involving Russia and Ukraine, there is an increased likelihood that escalation of tensions could result in cyber attacks that could either directly or indirectly impact our operations. Historically, none of these attacks or breaches has individually or in the aggregate resulted in any material liability to us or any material damage to our reputation, and disruptions related to cybersecurity have not caused any material disruption to the Company’s business, but there can be no assurance that such attacks will not have a material adverse impact on the Company in the future. The safeguards we have designed to help prevent future security incidents and systems disruptions and to comply with applicable legal requirements may not be successful, and we may experience material security incidents, disruptions, or other problems in the future. We also may experience software defects, development delays, installation difficulties and other systems problems, which could harm our business and reputation and expose us to potential liability which may not be fully covered by our business interruption insurance. In addition, hardware, software, or applications that we develop or procure from third parties may contain defects in design or manufacture or other problems that could unexpectedly compromise information security. These applications may not be sufficient to address technological advances, regulatory requirements, changing market conditions or other developments. In addition, any work stoppages or other labor actions by employees, the significant majority of whom are located outside the United States, could adversely affect our business.

During the first quarter of 2021, we transitioned a majority of our money transfer settlement processes to our new global platform. This project has been and will continue to be complex, as we have defined, created, and implemented new settlement solutions that are specific to the needs of our agents and other partners, who span a number of countries and regulatory regimes. We continue to transition the remaining processes, primarily including money transfers sent from the United States and Canada, to the new platform. We expect that this will require the continued assistance of our third-party software provider, with whom we have worked on this project over the past several years, as well as our agents that are being transitioned to the platform.

We receive services from third-party vendors that would be difficult to replace if those vendors ceased providing such services adequately or at all. Cessation of or defects in various services provided to us by third-party vendors could cause temporary disruption to our business.

Some services relating to our business, such as cloud-based software service providers, software application support, the development, hosting and maintenance of our operating systems, merchant acquiring services, call center services, check clearing, processing of returned checks, and other operating activities are outsourced to third-party vendors, which would be difficult to replace quickly. If our third-party vendors were unwilling or unable to provide us with these services in the future, due to labor shortages or otherwise, our business and operations could be adversely affected.

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Risks Relating to Acquisitions, Divestitures, and Restructuring Activities

Acquisitions and integration of new businesses create risks and may affect operating results.

We have acquired and may acquire businesses both inside and outside the United States. As of December 31, 2021, we had $2,566.6 million of goodwill comprising approximately 29% of our total assets, including $1,980.7 million of goodwill in our Consumer-to-Consumer reporting unit and $532.0 million of goodwill in our Business Solutions reporting unit. On August 4, 2021, we entered into an agreement to sell our Business Solutions business to Goldfinch Partners LLC and The Baupost Group LLC for $910 million in cash, and we expect to recognize a gain on the sale. As of December 31, 2021, the goodwill related to the Business Solutions reporting unit is included in Assets held for sale on the Consolidated Balance Sheets. If we or our reporting units do not generate operating cash flows at levels consistent with our expectations, we may be required to write down the goodwill on our balance sheet, which could have a significant adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations in future periods. For example, for the year ended December 31, 2017, we recognized a non-cash goodwill impairment charge related to our Business Solutions reporting unit.

In addition to the risk of goodwill impairment, the acquisition and integration of businesses involve a number of other risks. The core risks involve valuation (negotiating a fair price for the business based on inherently limited due diligence) and integration (managing the complex process of integrating the acquired company’s people, products and services, technology and other assets in an effort to realize the projected value of the acquired company and the projected synergies of the acquisition). Another risk is the need in some cases to improve regulatory compliance; see “Risks Relating to Our Regulatory and Litigation Environment” below. Acquisitions often involve additional or increased risks including, for example:

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realizing the anticipated financial benefits from these acquisitions and where necessary, improving internal controls of these acquired businesses;

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managing geographically separated organizations, systems and facilities;

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managing multi-jurisdictional operating, tax and financing structures;

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integrating personnel with diverse business backgrounds and organizational cultures;

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integrating the acquired technologies into our Company;

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complying with regulatory requirements, including those particular to the industry and jurisdiction of the acquired business;

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obtaining and enforcing intellectual property rights in some foreign countries;

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entering new markets with the services of the acquired businesses; and

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general economic and political conditions, including legal and other barriers to cross-border investment in general, or by United States companies in particular.

Integrating operations could cause an interruption of, or divert resources from, one or more of our businesses and could result in the loss of key personnel. The diversion of management’s attention and any delays or difficulties encountered in connection with an acquisition and the integration of the acquired company’s operations could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

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Divestitures and contingent liabilities from divested businesses could adversely affect our business and financial results.

We continually evaluate the performance and strategic fit of all of our businesses and may sell businesses or product lines.For example, on August 4, 2021, we entered an agreement to sell our Business Solutions business, which is expected to be completed in two primary closings during 2022, as previously discussed. Divestitures involve risks, including difficulties in the separation of operations, services, products and personnel, the diversion of management's attention from other business concerns, the disruption of our business, the potential loss of key employees and the retention of uncertain contingent liabilities related to the divested business. When we decide to sell assets or a business, we may encounter difficulty in finding buyers or alternative exit strategies on acceptable terms in a timely manner, which could delay the achievement of our strategic objectives. We may also dispose of a business at a price or on terms that are less desirable than we had anticipated, which could result in significant asset impairment charges, including those related to goodwill and other intangible assets, that could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, we may experience greater dis-synergies than expected, the impact of the divestiture on our revenue growth may be larger than projected, and some divestitures may be dilutive to earnings. There can be no assurance whether the strategic benefits and expected financial impact of the divestiture will be achieved. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in managing these or any other significant risks that we encounter in divesting a business or product line, and any divestiture we undertake could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

We may not realize all of the anticipated benefits from restructuring and other related initiatives, which may include decisions to downsize or to transition operating activities from one location to another, and we may experience disruptions in our workforce as a result of those initiatives.

Over the past few years, we have been engaged in restructuring actions and activities associated with business transformation, productivity improvement initiatives, and expense reduction measures. See Part II, Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, Note 4, Restructuring-Related Expenses for further discussion regarding our restructuring plan initiated in 2019 designed to change our operating model and improve our business processes and cost structure by reorganizing our senior management, reducing our headcount, and consolidating various facilities. We may implement additional initiatives in future periods. While these initiatives are designed to increase operational effectiveness and productivity and result in improved profitability, there can be no assurance that the anticipated benefits will be realized, and the costs to implement such initiatives may be greater than expected. In addition, these initiatives have resulted and will likely result in the loss of personnel, some of whom may support significant systems or operations, and may make it more difficult to attract and retain key personnel, any of which could negatively impact our results of operations. Consequently, these initiatives could result in a disruption to our workforce. If we do not realize the anticipated benefits from these or similar initiatives, the costs to implement future initiatives are greater than expected, or if the actions result in a disruption to our workforce greater than anticipated, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows could be adversely affected.

General Risks

Changes in tax laws, or their interpretation, and unfavorable resolution of tax contingencies could adversely affect our tax expense.

Our future effective tax rates could be adversely affected by changes in tax laws or their interpretation, both domestically and internationally. For example, in December 2017, the Tax Act was enacted into United States law. Among other things, the Tax Act imposes a tax on certain previously undistributed foreign earnings, establishes minimum taxes related to certain payments deemed to erode the United States tax base, and retains and expands United States taxation on a broad range of foreign earnings (whether or not the earnings have been repatriated) while effectively exempting certain types of foreign earnings from United States tax. In addition, the Tax Act is broad and complex, and any changes or clarifications in the interpretation of the Tax Act or other legislative proposals or amendments could have an adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Furthermore, the effect of certain aspects of the Tax Act on state income tax frameworks could change as states update their laws for these aspects, and potential changes to state income tax laws or their interpretation could further increase our income tax expense. Recently, several changes have been proposed to current United States tax laws to increase taxes on corporations. If any or all of these (or similar) proposals are ultimately enacted into law, in whole or in part, such increases could negatively impact our effective tax rate.

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Additionally, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (“OECD”) has asked countries around the globe to act to prevent what it refers to as base erosion and profit shifting (“BEPS”). The OECD considers BEPS to refer to tax planning strategies that shift, perhaps artificially, profits across borders to take advantage of differing tax laws and rates among countries. Tax reforms recommended in the BEPS action plan include changes that would impact, among other things, global tax reporting, intercompany transfer pricing arrangements, the definition of taxable permanent establishments, and other legal or financial arrangements that are viewed as causing BEPS. Significant components of the BEPS action plan were published by the OECD in October 2015 and a number of governments have enacted or proposed rules to implement changes specifically suggested in the recommendations or other changes, such as specific “economic substance” rules, inspired by BEPS-style considerations. Furthermore, the OECD, through an association of almost 140 countries known as the “inclusive framework,” has announced a consensus around further changes in traditional international tax principles (“BEPS 2.0”) to address, among other things, perceived challenges presented by global digital commerce (“Pillar 1”) and the perceived need for a minimum global effective tax rate of 15% (“Pillar 2”). Any material change in tax laws or policies, or their interpretation, resulting from BEPS, BEPS 2.0, or other legislative proposals or inquiries could result in a higher effective tax rate on our earnings and have an adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

Our tax returns and positions (including positions regarding jurisdictional authority of foreign governments to impose tax) are subject to review and audit by federal, state, local and foreign taxing authorities. An unfavorable outcome to a tax audit could result in higher tax expense, thereby negatively impacting our results of operations. We have established contingency reserves for a variety of material, known tax exposures. As of December 31, 2021, the total amount of unrecognized tax benefits was a liability of $318.6 million, including accrued interest and penalties, net of related items. Our reserves reflect our judgment as to the resolution of the issues involved if subject to judicial review. While we believe that our reserves are adequate to cover reasonably expected tax risks, there can be no assurance that, in all instances, an issue raised by a tax authority will be resolved at a financial cost that does not exceed our related reserve, and such resolution could have a material effect on our effective tax rate, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows in the current period and/or future periods. With respect to these reserves, our income tax expense would include: (i) any changes in tax reserves arising from material changes during the period in the facts and circumstances (i.e., new information) surrounding a tax issue and (ii) any difference from the Company’s tax position as recorded in the financial statements and the final resolution of a tax issue during the period. Such resolution could increase or decrease income tax expense in our consolidated financial statements in future periods and could impact our operating cash flows.

Our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows could be harmed by adverse rating actions by credit rating agencies.

Downgrades in our credit ratings, or their review or revision to a negative outlook, could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows, and could damage perceptions of our financial strength, which could adversely affect our relationships with our agents, particularly those agents that are financial institutions or post offices, and our banking and other business relationships. In addition, adverse ratings actions could result in regulators imposing additional capital and other requirements on us, including imposing restrictions on the ability of our regulated subsidiaries to pay dividends. Also, a downgrade below investment grade will increase our interest expense under certain of our notes and our revolving credit facility, and any significant downgrade could increase our costs of borrowing money more generally or adversely impact or eliminate our access to the commercial paper market, each of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

There can be no guarantee that we will continue to make dividend payments or repurchase stock.

For risks associated with our ability to continue to make dividend payments or repurchase shares, please see Part II, Item 5, Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.

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The Western Union® and WU® brands, which are protected by trademark registrations in many countries, are material to our Company. The loss of the Western Union® or WU® trademarks or a diminution in the perceived quality of products or services associated with the names would harm our business. Similar to the Western Union® and WU® trademarks, the Orlandi Valuta®, Vigo®, Western Union Business SolutionsSM, Pago Fácil®, Quick Collect®, Quick PaySM, Pay@WUSM, Quick Cash®, My WUSM, WU+SM, Western Union Convenience Pay®, and other trademarks and service marks are also important to our Company and a loss of the service mark or trademarks or a diminution in the perceived quality associated with these names could harm our business.

Our intellectual property rights are an important element in the value of our business. Our failure to take appropriate actions against those who infringe upon our intellectual property could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

The laws of certain foreign countries in which we do business do not always protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States. Adverse determinations in judicial or administrative proceedings in the United States or in foreign countries could impair our ability to sell our products or services or license or protect our intellectual property, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

We own patents and patent applications covering various aspects of our processes and services. We have been, are and in the future may be, subject to claims alleging that our platform, mobile application, or other products and services infringe third-party intellectual property or other proprietary rights, both inside and outside the United States. Unfavorable resolution of these claims could require us to change how we deliver or promote a service, result in significant financial consequences, or both, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

Material changes in the market value or liquidity of the securities we hold may adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

As of December 31, 2021, we held $1.4 billion in investment securities, the significant majority of which are state and municipal debt securities. The majority of this money represents the principal of money orders issued by us to consumers primarily in the United States and money transfers sent by consumers. We regularly monitor our credit risk and attempt to mitigate our exposure by investing in highly-rated securities and by diversifying our investments. Despite those measures, it is possible that the value of our portfolio may decline in the future due to any number of factors, including general market conditions, credit issues, the viability of the issuer of the security, failure by a fund manager to manage the investment portfolio consistently with the fund prospectus or increases in interest rates. Any such decline in value may adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

We have substantial debt and other obligations that could restrict our operations.

As of December 31, 2021, we had approximately $3.0 billion in consolidated indebtedness, and we may also incur additional indebtedness in the future. Furthermore, the Tax Act imposes a tax on certain of our previously undistributed foreign earnings, which we have elected to pay in periodic installments through 2025.

Our indebtedness and tax obligations could have adverse consequences, including:

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limiting our ability to pay dividends to our stockholders or to repurchase stock consistent with our historical practices;

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increasing our vulnerability to changing economic, regulatory and industry conditions;

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limiting our ability to compete and our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and the industry;

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limiting our ability to borrow additional funds; and

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requiring us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations to payments on our debt or tax obligations, thereby reducing funds available for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, and other purposes.

Risks Relating to Our Regulatory and Litigation Environment

As described under Part I, Item 1, Business, our business is subject to a wide range of laws and regulations enacted by the United States federal government, each of the states (including licensing requirements), many localities and many other countries and jurisdictions. Laws and regulations to which we are subject include those related to: financial services, anti-money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism, sanctions and anti-fraud, consumer disclosure and consumer protection, currency controls, money transfer and payment instrument licensing, payment services, credit and debit cards, electronic payments, foreign exchange hedging services and the sale of spot, forward, and option currency contracts, unclaimed property, the regulation of competition, consumer privacy, data protection and information security, cybersecurity, operational security, outsourcing, risk management, and other governance requirements applicable to regulated financial service providers. Further, where we cooperate with partners around the world to offer other branded and unbranded money transfer services, including services offered and marketed exclusively under the partners’ brands, the regulatory requirements applicable to us may vary. The failure by us, our agents, their subagents, or our partners to comply with any such laws or regulations could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows and could seriously damage our reputation and brands, and result in diminished revenue and profit and increased operating costs.

Risks Relating to Significant Regulatory Requirements

Our business is subject to a wide range and increasing number of laws and regulations. Liabilities or loss of business resulting from a failure by us, our agents, or their subagents to comply with laws and regulations and regulatory or judicial interpretations thereof, including laws and regulations designed to protect consumers, or detect and prevent money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, and other illicit activity, and increased costs or loss of business associated with compliance with those laws and regulations has had and we expect will continue to have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

Our services are subject to increasingly strict legal and regulatory requirements, including those related to detecting and preventing money laundering, countering terrorist financing, fraud, and other illicit activity, and administering economic and trade sanctions. The interpretation of those requirements by judges, regulatory bodies and enforcement agencies may change quickly and with little notice. Additionally, these requirements or their interpretations in one jurisdiction may conflict with those of another jurisdiction. As United States federal and state as well as foreign legislative and regulatory scrutiny and enforcement action in these areas increase, we expect that our costs of complying with these requirements could continue to increase, perhaps substantially, and may make it more difficult or less desirable for consumers and others to use our services or for us to contract with certain intermediaries, either of which would have an adverse effect on our revenue and operating income. For example, in recent years we have made significant additional investments in our compliance programs based on the rapidly evolving and increasingly complex global regulatory and enforcement environment and our internal reviews. These additional investments relate to enhancing our compliance capabilities, including our consumer protection efforts. Further, failure by Western Union, our agents or their subagents (agents and subagents are third parties, over whom Western Union has limited legal and practical control), and service providers to comply with any of these requirements or their interpretation could result in the suspension or revocation of a license or registration required to provide money transfer, payment or foreign exchange services, the limitation, suspension, or termination of services, changes to our business model, loss of consumer confidence, the seizure of our assets, and/or the imposition of civil and criminal penalties, including fines and restrictions on our ability to offer services.

We are subject to regulations imposed by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (the “FCPA”) in the United States and similar laws in other countries, such as the Bribery Act in the UK, which generally prohibit companies and those acting on their behalf from making improper payments to foreign government officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. Some of these laws, such as the Bribery Act, also prohibit improper payments between commercial enterprises. Because our services are offered in virtually every country of the world, we face significant risks associated with our obligations under the FCPA, the Bribery Act, and other national anti-corruption laws. Any determination that we have violated these laws could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

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Our United States business is subject to reporting, recordkeeping and anti-money laundering provisions of the BSA and to regulatory oversight and enforcement by FinCEN. We have subsidiaries in Brazil and Austria that are subject to banking regulations. Our Austrian banking subsidiary is also subject to regulation, examination, and supervision by the NYDFS. We also operate through a small number of licensed payment institutions in the EU. Under the Payment Services Directive (“PSD”), as amended by a revised Payment Services Directive known as PSD2, and the 4th and 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive in the EU, our operating companies that are licensed in the EU have increasingly become directly subject to reporting, recordkeeping, and anti-money laundering regulations, and agent oversight and monitoring requirements, as well as broader supervision by EU member states. Additionally, the financial penalties associated with the failure to comply with anti-money laundering laws have increased in recent regulation, including the 4th and 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive in the EU. These laws have increased and will continue to increase our costs and could also increase competition in some or all of our areas of service. Legislation that has been enacted or proposed in other jurisdictions could have similar effects.

The remittance industry, including Western Union, has come under increasing scrutiny from government regulators and others in connection with its ability to prevent its services from being abused by people seeking to defraud others. For example, in early 2017, we entered into the Joint Settlement Agreements with the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”), certain United States Attorney’s Offices, the FTC, FinCEN, and various state attorneys general to resolve the respective investigations of those agencies, and in early 2018, we agreed to the NYDFS Consent Order. The ingenuity of criminal fraudsters, combined with the potential susceptibility to fraud by consumers, make the prevention of consumer fraud a significant and challenging problem. Our failure to continue to help prevent such frauds and increased costs related to the implementation of enhanced anti-fraud measures, or a change in fraud prevention laws or their interpretation or the manner in which they are enforced has had, and could in the future have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

Further, any determination that our agents or their subagents have violated laws and regulations could seriously damage our reputation and brands, resulting in diminished revenue and profit and increased operating costs. In some cases, we could be liable for the failure of our agents or their subagents to comply with laws which also could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. In many jurisdictions where Western Union is licensed to offer money transfer services, the license holder is responsible for ensuring the agent’s compliance with the rules that govern the money transfer service. For example, in the EU, Western Union is responsible for the compliance of our agents and their subagents when they are acting on behalf of our Irish payment institution subsidiary, which is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. The majority of our EU consumer money transfer activity is managed through our Irish payment institution. Thus, the risk of adverse regulatory action against Western Union because of actions by our agents or their subagents and the costs to monitor our agents or their subagents in those areas has increased. The regulations implementing the remittance provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act also impose responsibility on us for any related compliance failures of our agents and their subagents.

The requirements under the PSD/PSD2, the Dodd-Frank Act, and similar legislation enacted or proposed in other countries have resulted and will likely continue to result in increased compliance costs, and in the event we or our agents are unable to comply, could have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Additional countries may adopt similar legislation.

In view of the UK’s departure from the EU on January 31, 2020, to ensure that our operations will continue in the UK, we set up a new payment institution to conduct money remittance in the UK, which was authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority in April 2019, and presently offers retail money transfer services via UK agents. We also applied for the UK branch of our Austrian banking subsidiary to be authorized by the UK PRA as a Third Country Branch (i.e., a UK branch of a non-UK bank) in order to continue to conduct our UK Business Solutions and Digital Money Transfer operations. In the period from December 31, 2020 until the date of the UK branch being authorized, it will operate under the Temporary Permissions Regime introduced in the UK. This UK branch will be subject to certain additional UK regulatory requirements upon authorization. Further, as a result of Brexit, including under the terms of any new regulatory authorizations we have and may obtain, we could be required to comply with differing regulatory requirements in the UK as a result of divergence from established EU regulation. This could make it more costly for us to provide our services.

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Our fees, profit margins, and/or foreign exchange spreads may be reduced or limited because of regulatory initiatives and changes in laws and regulations or their interpretation and industry practices and standards that are either industry wide or specifically targeted at our Company.

The evolving regulatory environment, including increased fees or taxes, regulatory initiatives, and changes in laws and regulations or their interpretation, industry practices and standards imposed by state, federal, or foreign governments, and expectations regarding our compliance efforts, is impacting the manner in which we operate our business, may change the competitive landscape, and is expected to continue to adversely affect our financial results. Existing, new, and proposed legislation relating to financial services providers and consumer protection in various jurisdictions around the world has affected and may continue to affect the manner in which we provide our services; see risk factor “The Dodd-Frank Act, as well as the regulations required by that Act and the actions of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and similar legislation and regulations enacted by other government authorities, could adversely affect us and the scope of our activities and could adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.” Recently proposed and enacted legislation related to financial services providers and consumer protection in various jurisdictions around the world and at the federal and state level in the United States has subjected and may continue to subject us to additional regulatory oversight, mandate additional consumer disclosures and remedies, including refunds to consumers, or otherwise impact the manner in which we provide our services. If governments implement new laws or regulations that limit our right to set fees and/or foreign exchange spreads, then our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows could be adversely affected. In addition, changes in regulatory expectations, interpretations, or practices could increase the risk of regulatory enforcement actions, fines, and penalties. For example, in early 2017, we entered into the Joint Settlement Agreements, and in early 2018, we agreed to the NYDFS Consent Order.

In addition, U.S. policy makers have sought and may continue to seek heightened customer due diligence requirements on, or restrict, remittances from the United States to Mexico or other jurisdictions. For example, in October 2020, OFAC amended its Cuban Assets Control Regulations, requiring us to suspend our money transfer services to Cuba. In addition, government sanctions imposed in February 2022 with respect to Russia and Ukraine are impacting our ability to offer services in the region, and additional sanctions could be imposed in the future. Policy makers have also discussed potential legislation to add taxes to remittances from the United States to Mexico and/or other countries. Further, one state has passed a law imposing a fee on certain money transfer transactions, and certain other states have proposed similar legislation. Several foreign countries have enacted or proposed rules imposing taxes or fees on certain money transfer transactions, as well. The approach of policy makers and the ongoing budget shortfalls in many jurisdictions, combined with future federal action or inaction on immigration reform, may lead other states or localities to impose similar taxes or fees or other requirements or restrictions. Foreign countries in similar circumstances have invoked and could continue to invoke the imposition of sales, service, or similar taxes, or other requirements or restrictions, on money transfer services. A tax, fee, or other requirement or restriction exclusively on money transfer services like Western Union could put us at a competitive disadvantage to other means of remittance which are not subject to the same taxes, fees, requirements, or restrictions. Other examples of changes to our financial environment include the possibility of regulatory initiatives that focus on lowering international remittance costs. Such initiatives may have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

Regulators around the world look at each other’s approaches to the regulation of the payments and other industries. Consequently, a development in any one country, state, or region may influence regulatory approaches in other countries, states, or regions. Similarly, new laws and regulations in a country, state, or region involving one service may cause lawmakers there to extend the regulations to another service. As a result, the risks created by any one new law or regulation are magnified by the potential they may be replicated, affecting our business in another place or involving another service. Conversely, if widely varying regulations come into existence worldwide, we may have difficulty adjusting our services, fees, foreign exchange spreads and other important aspects of our business, with the same effect. Further, political changes and trends such as populism, economic nationalism, protectionism, and negative sentiment towards multinational companies could result in laws or regulations that adversely impact our ability to conduct business in certain jurisdictions. Any of these eventualities could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

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Regulatory initiatives and changes in laws, regulations, and industry practices and standards affecting us, our agents or their subagents, or the banks with which we or our agents maintain bank accounts needed to provide our services could require changes in our business model and increase our costs of operations, which could adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations, and liquidity.

Our agents and their subagents are subject to a variety of regulatory requirements, which differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, are subject to change, and continue to increase. Material changes in the regulatory requirements for offering money transfer services, including with respect to anti-money laundering requirements, sanctions, fraud prevention, licensing requirements, consumer protection, customer due diligence, agent registration, or increased requirements to monitor our agents or their subagents in a jurisdiction important to our business have meant and could continue to mean increased costs and/or operational demands on our agents and their subagents, which have resulted and could continue to result in their attrition, a decrease in the number of locations at which money transfer services are offered, an increase in the commissions paid to agents and their subagents to compensate for their increased costs, and other negative consequences.

We rely on our agents’ technology systems and/or processes to obtain transaction data. If an agent or its subagent experiences a breach of its systems, if there is a significant disruption to the technology systems of an agent or its subagent, if an agent or its subagent does not maintain the appropriate controls over their systems, or if we are unable to demonstrate adequate oversight of an agent’s or subagent’s handling of those matters, we may experience reputational and other harm which could result in losses to the Company.

Our regulatory status and the regulatory status of our agents and their subagents could affect our and their ability to offer our services. For example, we and our agents and their subagents rely on bank accounts to provide our Consumer-to-Consumer money transfer services. We also rely on bank accounts to provide our payment services. We and our agents and their subagents are considered Money Service Businesses (“MSBs”) under the BSA, including our Business Solutions operations. Many banks view MSBs as a class of higher risk customers for purposes of their anti-money laundering programs. We and some of our agents and their subagents have had, and in the future may have, difficulty establishing or maintaining banking relationships due to the banks’ policies. If we or a significant number of our agents or their subagents are unable to maintain existing or establish new banking relationships, or if we or these agents face higher fees to maintain or establish new bank accounts, our ability and the ability of our agents and their subagents to continue to offer our services may be adversely impacted, which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

The types of enterprises that are legally authorized to act as our agents and their subagents vary significantly from one country to another. Changes in the laws affecting the kinds of entities that are permitted to act as money transfer agents or their subagents (such as changes in requirements for capitalization or ownership) could adversely affect our ability to distribute our services and the cost of providing such services, both by us and our agents and their subagents. For example, a requirement that a money transfer provider be a bank or other highly regulated financial entity could increase significantly the cost of providing our services in many countries where that requirement does not exist today or could prevent us from offering our services in an affected country. Further, any changes in law that would require us to provide money transfer services directly to consumers as opposed to through an agent network (which would effectively change our business model) or that would prohibit or impede the use of subagents could significantly adversely impact our ability to provide our services, and/or the cost of our services, in the relevant jurisdiction. Changes mandated by laws which make Western Union responsible for acts of its agents and their subagents while they are providing the Western Union money transfer service increase our risk of regulatory liability and our costs to monitor our agents’ or their subagents’ performance.

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Although most of our Orlandi Valuta and Vigo branded agents also offer money transfer services of our competitors, many of our Western Union branded agents have agreed to offer only our money transfer services. While we expect to continue signing certain agents under exclusive arrangements and believe that these agreements are valid and enforceable, changes in laws regulating competition or in the interpretation of those laws could undermine our ability to enforce them in the future. Various jurisdictions continue to increase their focus on the potential impact of agent agreements on competition. In addition, over the past several years, several countries in Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Africa, and Asia have promulgated laws or regulations, or authorities in these countries have issued orders, which effectively prohibit payment service providers, such as money transfer companies, from agreeing to exclusive arrangements with agents in those countries. Certain institutions, non-governmental organizations and others are actively advocating against exclusive arrangements in money transfer agent agreements. Advocates for laws prohibiting or limiting exclusive agreements continue to push for enactment of similar laws in other jurisdictions. In addition to legal challenges, certain of our agents and their subagents have refused to enter into exclusive arrangements. See risk factor “If we are unable to maintain our agent, subagent, or global business relationships under terms acceptable to us or consistent with those currently in place, including due to increased costs or loss of business as a result of increased compliance requirements or difficulty for us, our agents, or their subagents in establishing or maintaining relationships with banks needed to conduct our services, or if our agents or their subagents fail to comply with our business and technology standards and contract requirements, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows would be adversely affected” above. The inability to enter into exclusive arrangements or to maintain our exclusive rights in agent contracts in certain situations could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows by, for example, allowing competitors to benefit from the goodwill associated with the Western Union brand at our agent locations.

In addition to legal or regulatory restrictions discussed in the Capital Resources and Liquidity section in Part II, Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, some jurisdictions use tangible net worth and other financial strength guidelines to evaluate financial position. If our regulated subsidiaries do not abide by these guidelines, they may be subject to heightened review by these jurisdictions, and the jurisdictions may be more likely to impose new formal financial strength requirements. Additional financial strength requirements imposed on our regulated subsidiaries or significant changes in the regulatory environment for money transfer providers could impact our primary source of liquidity.

The Dodd-Frank Act, as well as the regulations required by that Act and the actions of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and similar legislation and regulations enacted by other government authorities, could adversely affect us and the scope of our activities and could adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

Rules and regulations implemented under the Dodd-Frank Act have made and continue to make significant structural reforms and new substantive regulation across the financial services industry. In addition, the Dodd-Frank Act created the CFPB, which implements, examines compliance with and enforces federal consumer protection laws governing financial products and services, including money transfer services. The CFPB has created additional regulatory obligations for us and has the authority to examine and supervise us and our larger competitors, including for matters related to unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts and practices (“UDAAP”). The CFPB’s regulations implementing the remittance provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act have affected our business in a variety of areas. These include: (i) a requirement to provide consumers sending funds internationally from the United States enhanced, written, pre-transaction disclosures and transaction receipts, including the disclosure of fees, foreign exchange rates and taxes, (ii) an obligation to resolve various errors, including certain errors that may be outside our control, and (iii) an obligation at a consumer’s request to cancel transactions that have not been completed. These requirements have changed the way we operate our business and along with other potential changes under CFPB regulations could adversely affect our operations and financial results. In addition, the Dodd-Frank Act and interpretations and actions by the CFPB have had, and could continue to have a significant impact on us by, for example, requiring us to limit or change our business practices, limiting our ability to pursue business opportunities, requiring us to invest valuable management time and resources in compliance efforts, imposing additional costs on us, delaying our ability to respond to marketplace changes, requiring us to alter our products and services in a manner that would make them less attractive to consumers and impair our ability to offer them profitably, or requiring us to make other changes that could adversely affect our business. In addition, these regulations impose responsibility on us for any related compliance failures of our agents.

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The CFPB has broad authority to enforce consumer protection laws. The CFPB has a large staff and budget, which is not subject to Congressional appropriation, and has broad authority with respect to our money transfer service and related business. It is authorized to collect fines and provide consumer restitution in the event of violations, engage in consumer financial education, track and solicit consumer complaints, request data, and promote the availability of financial services to underserved consumers and communities. In addition, the CFPB may adopt other regulations governing consumer financial services, including regulations defining UDAAP, and new model disclosures. The CFPB’s authority to change regulations adopted in the past by other regulators, or to rescind or ignore past regulatory guidance, could increase our compliance costs and litigation exposure. In addition, attorneys general of the various states of the United States also have authority to enforce the consumer protection provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act in their respective jurisdictions.

We have been and continue to be subject to examination by the CFPB, which defines “larger participants of a market for other consumer financial products or services” as including companies, such as Western Union, that make at least one million aggregate annual international money transfers. The CFPB has the authority to examine and supervise us and our larger competitors, which will involve providing reports to the CFPB. The CFPB has used information gained in examinations as the basis for enforcement actions resulting in settlements involving monetary penalties and other remedies.

The effect of the Dodd-Frank Act and the CFPB on our business and operations has been and will continue to be significant, and the application of the Dodd-Frank Act’s implementing regulations to our business may differ from the application to certain of our competitors, including banks. Further, and in addition to our own compliance costs, implementation of requirements under Dodd-Frank could impact our business relationships with financial institution customers who outsource processing of consumer transactions to our Business Solutions segment. These financial institutions may determine that the compliance costs associated with providing consumer services are too burdensome and consequently may limit or discontinue offering such services.

Various jurisdictions in the United States and outside the United States have consumer protection laws and regulations, and numerous governmental agencies are tasked with enforcing those laws and regulations. Consumer protection principles continue to evolve globally, and new or enhanced consumer protection laws and regulations may be adopted. Governmental agencies tasked with enforcing consumer protection laws or regulations are communicating more frequently and coordinating their efforts to protect consumers. For instance, ICPEN is an organization composed of consumer protection authorities from over 60 countries that provides a forum for developing and maintaining regular contact between consumer protection agencies and focusing on consumer protection concerns. By encouraging cooperation between agencies, ICPEN aims to enable its members to have a greater impact with their consumer protection laws and regulations. As the scope of consumer protection laws and regulations change, we may experience increased costs to comply and other adverse effects to our business.

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Rules adopted under the Dodd-Frank Act by the CFTC, as well as the provisions of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation and its technical standards, which are directly applicable in the member states of the EU and in the UK, have subjected most of our foreign exchange hedging transactions, including certain intercompany hedging transactions, certain of the corporate interest rate hedging transactions we may enter into in the future, and certain of the foreign exchange derivatives contracts we offer as part of our Business Solutions segment, to reporting, recordkeeping, and other requirements. Additionally, certain of the corporate interest rate hedging transactions and foreign exchange derivatives transactions we may enter into in the future may be subject to centralized clearing requirements or may be subject to margin requirements in the United States, the EU, and the UK. Other jurisdictions outside of the United States, the EU, and the UK are considering, have implemented, or are implementing regulations similar to those described above. Derivatives regulations have added costs to our business, and any additional requirements, such as future registration requirements and increased regulation of derivatives contracts, will result in additional costs or impact the way we conduct our hedging activities. Additionally, the regulatory regimes for derivatives in the United States, the EU, and the UK, such as under the Dodd-Frank Act and MiFID II, are continuing to evolve and changes to such regimes, our designation under such regimes, or the implementation of new rules under such regimes, such as future registration requirements and increased regulation of derivatives contracts, may result in additional costs to our business. Other jurisdictions outside the United States, the EU, and the UK are considering, have implemented, or are implementing regulations similar to those described above, and these will result in greater costs to us as well. Our implementation of these requirements has resulted, and will continue to result, in additional costs to our business. Moreover, as a result of Brexit, we could be required to comply with differing regulatory requirements in the UK as a result of divergence from established EU regulation. This could make it more costly for us to provide our services. Furthermore, our failure to implement these requirements correctly could result in fines and other sanctions, as well as necessitate a temporary or permanent cessation to some or all of our derivative related activities. Any such fines, sanctions, or limitations on our business could adversely affect our operations and financial results.

Current and proposed regulation addressing consumer privacy and data use and security could increase our costs of operations, which could adversely affect our operations, results of operations, and financial condition.

We are subject to extensive requirements relating to data privacy and security under federal, state, and foreign laws. These laws and requirements continue to evolve and may become increasingly difficult to comply with. For example, the FTC continues to investigate the privacy practices of many companies and has brought numerous enforcement actions, resulting in multi-year agreements governing the settling companies’ privacy practices. Furthermore, certain industry groups require us to adhere to privacy requirements in addition to federal, state, and foreign laws, and certain of our business relationships depend upon our compliance with these requirements. As the number of countries enacting privacy and related laws increases and the scope of these laws and enforcement efforts expand, we will increasingly become subject to new and varying requirements. For example, in 2018, the EU implemented the GDPR, and other countries have enacted similar legislation, such as Brazil’s General Data Protection Law (“LGPD”), which became effective in 2020, and China’s Personal Information Protection Law ("PIPL"), which became effective in November 2021. The GDPR, LGPD, and PIPL impose additional obligations and present the risk of substantially increased penalties for non-compliance, including the possibility of not only fines but also enforcement action that may require an organization to cease certain of its data processing activities. Such penalties could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. In addition, in 2020 the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) invalidated the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework, which provided a mechanism for companies transferring personal data from the EU to the U.S., and imposed additional obligations on companies such as Western Union when transferring personal data from the EU to the U.S. and other jurisdictions. This may result in increased costs of compliance and limitations on us. Further, this CJEU decision or other regulatory changes relating to cross-border data transfers may serve as a basis for challenges to our personal data handling practices, which could also adversely impact our business, financial condition, and operating results. We have incurred, and we expect to continue to incur, expenses to meet the obligations of the GDPR and other similar legislation and new interpretations of their requirements. We are also subject to data privacy and security laws in various states, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act, which became effective in 2020, that imposes heightened data privacy requirements on companies that collect information from California residents and creates a broad set of privacy rights and remedies modeled in part on the GDPR. Failure to comply with existing or future data privacy and security laws, regulations, and requirements to which we are subject or could become subject, including by reason of inadvertent disclosure of confidential information, could result in fines, sanctions, penalties, or other adverse consequences and loss of consumer confidence, which could materially adversely affect our results of operations, overall business, and reputation.

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In addition, in connection with regulatory requirements to assist in the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing and pursuant to legal obligations and authorizations, Western Union makes information available to certain United States federal, state, and foreign government agencies when required by law. In recent years, Western Union has experienced an increasing number of data sharing requests by these agencies, particularly in connection with efforts to prevent terrorist financing or to reduce the risk of identity theft. During the same period, there has also been increased public attention to the corporate use and disclosure of personal information, accompanied by legislation and regulations intended to strengthen data protection, information security, and consumer privacy. These regulatory goals, including the prevention of money laundering, terrorist financing, and identity theft, and the protection of the individual’s right to privacy, may conflict or otherwise present challenges, and the law in these areas is not consistent or settled. The legal, political, and business environments in these areas are rapidly changing, and subsequent legislation, regulation, litigation, court rulings, or other events could expose us to increased program costs, liability, and reputational damage.

We are subject to unclaimed property laws, and differences between the amounts we have accrued for unclaimed property and amounts that are claimed by a state or foreign jurisdiction could have a significant impact on our results of operations and cash flows.

We are subject to unclaimed property laws in the United States and abroad, and some of our agents are subject to unclaimed property laws in their respective jurisdictions which require us, or our agents, to turn over to certain government authorities the property of others held by us that has been unclaimed for a specified period of time, such as unpaid money transfers and money orders. We have an ongoing program to help us comply with those laws. These laws are evolving and are frequently unclear and inconsistent among various jurisdictions, making compliance challenging. In addition, we are subject to audits with regard to our escheatment practices. Currently in the United States, approximately 30 states are conducting a multi-year audit of our escheatment practices through a contracted third-party auditor. We have also commenced a contemporaneous internal review as part of our participation in Delaware’s voluntary disclosure program. Any difference between the amounts we have accrued for unclaimed property and amounts that are claimed by a state, foreign jurisdiction, or representative thereof could have a significant impact on our results of operations and cash flows.

Our consolidated balance sheets may not contain sufficient amounts or types of regulatory capital to meet the changing requirements of our various regulators worldwide, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

Our regulators expect us to possess sufficient financial soundness and strength to adequately support our regulated subsidiaries. We have substantial indebtedness and other obligations, including those related to the tax imposed on certain of our previously undistributed foreign earnings pursuant to the Tax Act, which could make it more difficult to meet these requirements or any additional requirements. In addition, although we are not a bank holding company for purposes of United States law or the law of any other jurisdiction, as a global provider of payment services and in light of the changing regulatory environment in various jurisdictions, we could become subject to new capital requirements introduced or imposed by our regulators that could require us to raise capital immediately or retain earnings over a period of time. Also, our regulators specify the amount and composition of eligible assets that certain of our subsidiaries must hold in order to satisfy our outstanding settlement obligations. These regulators could further restrict the type of instruments that qualify as permissible investments or require our regulated subsidiaries to maintain higher levels of eligible assets. Any change or increase in these regulatory requirements could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

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Risks Relating to Consent Agreements and Litigation

Our business is the subject of consent agreements with or enforcement actions by regulators.

In early 2017, the Company entered into Joint Settlement Agreements with the DOJ, certain United States Attorney’s Offices, the FTC, FinCEN, and various state attorneys general to resolve the respective investigations of those agencies. Under the Joint Settlement Agreements, the Company was required, among other things, to pay an aggregate amount of $586 million to the DOJ to be used to reimburse consumers who were the victims of third-party fraud conducted through the Company’s money transfer services, and retain an independent compliance auditor for three years to review and assess actions taken by the Company to further enhance its oversight of agents and protection of consumers, both of which were performed by the Company during 2017. The Joint Settlement Agreements also required the Company to adopt certain new or enhanced practices with respect to its compliance program, relating to, among other things, consumer reimbursement, agent due diligence, agent training, monitoring, reporting, and record-keeping by the Company and its agents, consumer fraud disclosures, and agent suspensions and terminations. Western Union has continuing obligations under the FTC Consent Order, which is a permanent injunction, as well as the requirement to submit annual reports to the FTC through January 2028. The ongoing obligations under the Joint Settlement Agreements could have adverse effects on the Company’s business, including additional costs and potential loss of business. The Company has also faced actions from other regulators as a result of the Joint Settlement Agreements. For example, on July 28, 2017, the NYDFS informed the Company that the facts set forth in the Deferred Prosecution Agreement (the “DPA”) with the DOJ and with certain other United States Attorney’s Offices regarding the Company’s anti-money laundering programs over the 2004 through 2012 period gave the NYDFS a basis to take additional enforcement action. In January 2018, the Company agreed to the NYDFS Consent Order with the NYDFS, which required the Company to pay a civil monetary penalty of $60 million to the NYDFS and resolved its investigation into these matters. The term of the DPA expired in January 2020, and it was dismissed in March 2020, and the term of the Independent Compliance Auditor under the FTC Consent Order ended in May 2020. Notwithstanding, if the Company fails to comply with its continuing obligations under the Joint Settlement Agreements, it could face criminal prosecution, civil litigation, significant fines, damage awards, or other regulatory consequences. Any or all of these outcomes could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

Our business is the subject of litigation, including purported class action litigation, and regulatory actions, which could result in material settlements, judgments, fines, or penalties.

As a company that provides global financial services primarily to consumers, we are subject to litigation, including purported class action litigation, and regulatory actions alleging violations of consumer protection, anti-money laundering, sanctions, securities laws, and other laws, both foreign and domestic. We also are subject to claims asserted by consumers based on individual transactions. There can be no guarantee that we will be successful in defending ourselves in these matters, and such failure may result in substantial fines, damages and expenses, revocation of required licenses, or other limitations on our ability to conduct business. Any of these outcomes could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Further, we believe increasingly strict legal and regulatory requirements and increased regulatory investigations and enforcement, any of which could occur or intensify as a result of the Joint Settlement Agreements, are likely to continue to result in changes to our business, as well as increased costs, supervision, and examination for both ourselves and our agents and subagents. These developments have had, and we believe will continue to have, an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations, and in turn may result in additional litigation or other actions. For more information, please see Part II, Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, Note 6, Commitments and Contingencies.

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Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

Not applicable.

Item 2. Properties

Properties and Facilities

As of December 31, 2021, we occupied facilities in approximately 45 countries. Substantially all these facilities were leased. Our office in Denver, Colorado serves as our corporate headquarters. Our offices in Dublin, Ireland and Barbados represent key operational and leadership locations. We also operate shared service centers in Lithuania, Costa Rica, India, and the Philippines. Our facilities are primarily used for operational, sales, and administrative purposes in support of our Consumer-to-Consumer and Business Solutions segments, and other services.

We believe that our facilities are suitable and adequate for our current business; however, we periodically review our facility requirements and may consolidate and dispose of, or sublet facilities, which are no longer required, or acquire new facilities and update existing facilities to meet the needs of our business.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

The information required by this Item 3 is incorporated herein by reference to the discussion in Part II, Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, Note 6, Commitments and Contingencies.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

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PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Our common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “WU.” There were 2,989 stockholders of record as of February 18, 2022. This figure does not include an estimate of the indeterminate number of beneficial holders whose shares may be held of record by brokerage firms and clearing agencies.

The following table sets forth stock repurchases for each of the three months of the quarter ended December 31, 2021:

Approximate Dollar

Total Number of Shares Value of Shares that

Purchased as Part of May Yet Be Purchased

Total Number of Average Price Publicly Announced Under the Plans or

(a)

These amounts represent both shares authorized by the Board of Directors for repurchase under a publicly announced authorization, as described below, as well as shares withheld from employees to cover tax withholding obligations on restricted stock units that have vested.

(b)

On February 28, 2019, our Board of Directors authorized $1.0 billion of common stock repurchases, and this authorization expired December 31, 2021. On February 10, 2022, our Board of Directors authorized another $1.0 billion of common stock repurchases through December 31, 2024. In certain instances, management has historically and may continue to establish prearranged written plans pursuant to Rule 10b5‐1. A Rule 10b5‐1 plan permits us to repurchase shares at times when we may otherwise be unable to do so, provided the plan is adopted when we are not aware of material non-public information.

Refer to Part II, Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, Note 17, Stock-Based Compensation Plans, and Part III, Item 12, Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters for information related to our equity compensation plans.

Dividend Policy and Share Repurchases

During 2021, the Board of Directors declared quarterly cash dividends of $0.235 per common share payable on December 31, 2021, September 30, 2021, June 30, 2021, and March 31, 2021. During 2020, the Board of Directors declared quarterly cash dividends of $0.225 per common share payable on December 31, 2020, September 30, 2020, June 30, 2020, and March 31, 2020. The declaration or authorization and amount of future dividends or share repurchases will be determined by the Board of Directors and will depend on our financial condition, earnings, liquidity, the amount and timing of payments under our debt and other obligations, capital requirements, regulatory constraints, cash generated or made available in the United States, industry practice, and any other factors that the Board of Directors believes are relevant. In addition, the United States House of Representatives has proposed a new excise tax on share repurchases; if this or a similar tax is enacted, it would increase our cost to repurchase shares in future periods. As a holding company with no material assets other than the capital stock of our subsidiaries, our ability to pay dividends or repurchase shares in future periods will be dependent primarily on our ability to use cash generated by our operating subsidiaries. Several of our operating subsidiaries are subject to financial services regulations, and their ability to pay dividends and distribute cash may be restricted. In addition, the Tax Act imposes a tax on certain of our previously undistributed foreign earnings, which we have elected to pay in periodic installments through 2025, as discussed in the Capital Resources and Liquidity section in Part II, Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. These payments will adversely affect our cash flow and liquidity and may adversely affect future share repurchases.

On February 10, 2022, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.235 per common share payable on March 31, 2022.

Item 6. [Reserved]

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Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following discussion should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the notes to those statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10‐K. This Annual Report on Form 10‐K contains certain statements that are forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Certain statements contained in the Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts, but rather are based on current expectations, estimates, assumptions, and projections about our industry, business, and future financial results. Our actual results could differ materially from the results contemplated by these forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including those discussed in other sections of this Annual Report on Form 10‐K. See “Risk Factors” and “Forward-Looking Statements.”

Overview

We are a leading provider of money movement and payment services, operating in two business segments:

•

Consumer-to-Consumer - Our Consumer-to-Consumer operating segment facilitates money transfers, which are sent from our retail agent locations worldwide or through websites and mobile devices, including our fast-growing money transfer transactions conducted and funded through websites and mobile applications marketed under our brands (“westernunion.com”) and transactions initiated on the internet and mobile applications hosted by our third-party white label or co-branded digital partners (together with westernunion.com, “Digital Money Transfer”). Our money transfer service is provided through one interconnected global network. This service is available for international cross-border transfers and, in certain countries, intra-country transfers.

•

Business Solutions - Our Business Solutions operating segment facilitates payment and foreign exchange solutions, primarily cross-border, cross-currency transactions, for small and medium size enterprises and other organizations and individuals. The significant majority of our Business Solutions business relates to exchanges of currency at spot rates, which enable customers to make cross-currency payments. In addition, in certain countries, we write foreign currency forward and option contracts for customers to facilitate future payments. On August 4, 2021, we entered into an agreement to sell our Business Solutions business to Goldfinch Partners LLC and The Baupost Group LLC, as further discussed below.

All businesses and other services that have not been classified in the above segments are reported as Other, which primarily includes our bill payment services which facilitate payments from consumers to businesses and other organizations and our money order services. Our other services, in addition to certain corporate costs such as costs related to strategic initiatives, including costs for the review and closing of mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, are also included in Other. Additional information on our segments is provided in the Segment Discussion below.

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Results of Operations

The following discussion of our consolidated results of operations and segment results refers to the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. For discussion of our consolidated results of operations and segment results for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, refer to Part II, Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, filed with the SEC on February 19, 2021.

The results of operations should be read in conjunction with the discussion of our segment results of operations, which provide more detailed discussions concerning certain components of the Consolidated Statements of Income. All significant intercompany accounts and transactions between our segments have been eliminated. The below information has been prepared in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (“GAAP”) unless otherwise noted. All amounts provided in this section are rounded to the nearest tenth of a million, except as otherwise noted. As a result, the percentage changes and margins disclosed herein may not recalculate precisely using the rounded amounts provided.

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak associated with a novel coronavirus a pandemic (“COVID-19”), and many governments implemented policies intended to stop or slow the further spread of the disease. These policies have resulted in lower consumer and commercial activity across many markets in which we operate and the closure of Western Union locations and agent locations in certain areas.As a result, customers have experienced and may continue to experience reduced access to, or desire or ability to use, retail agent locations. However, since March 2020, we have also experienced significant revenue growth from westernunion.com and other digital transactions, as further described below. While the duration and severity of this pandemic and related impacts have varied across time and locations and remain uncertain, our results of operations in future periods may also be negatively impacted by COVID-19.

Our revenues and operating income for the year ended December 31, 2021 were impacted by fluctuations in the United States dollar compared to foreign currencies. Fluctuations in the United States dollar compared to foreign currencies, net of the impact of foreign currency hedges, resulted in an increase to revenues of $18.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 relative to the prior year. Fluctuations in the United States dollar compared to foreign currencies positively impacted operating income by $30.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 relative to the prior year.

On August 4, 2021, we entered into an agreement to sell our Business Solutions business to Goldfinch Partners LLC and The Baupost Group LLC (collectively, the "Buyer") for cash consideration of $910 million, subject to regulatory and working capital adjustments. The divestiture is expected to result in a gain on the sale and is subject to regulatory approval and other closing conditions. The sale is expected to be completed in two primary closings, with the entirety of the cash consideration due at the first closing. The expected gain on the sale will be recognized at each closing, based on the book values and fair values of the operations sold at each closing. The first closing is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2022 and to primarily exclude the operations in the European Union and the United Kingdom. The second closing is currently expected by late 2022, pending required regulatory approvals. During the period between the closings, we will pay to the Buyer a measure of profit of the European Union and United Kingdom operations, adjusted for the provision for income taxes, occupancy charges for employees of the Buyer using our facilities, and other items. Business Solutions revenues were $421.8 million and $356.1 million, and direct operating expenses were $317.7 million and $319.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.

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The following table sets forth our consolidated results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020:

Year Ended December 31,

(in millions, except per share amounts) 2021 2020 % Change

Expenses:

Selling, general, and administrative 1,051.3 1,041.2 1 %

Other income/(expense):

Gain on sale of noncontrolling interest in a private company 47.9 — (a)

Pension settlement charges (109.8 ) — (a)

Other income/(expense), net (21.7 ) 3.1 (a)

Earnings per share:

Weighted-average shares outstanding:

(a)

Calculation not meaningful.

Revenues Overview

Revenues are primarily derived from consideration paid by customers to transfer money. These revenues vary by transaction based upon factors such as channel, send and receive locations, the principal amount sent, whether the money transfer involves different send and receive currencies, the difference between the exchange rate we set to the customer and the rate available in the wholesale foreign exchange market, and speed of service, as applicable. We also offer several other services, including foreign exchange and payment services and other bill payment services, for which revenue is impacted by similar factors.

Due to the significance of the effect that foreign exchange fluctuations against the United States dollar can have on our reported revenues and the significance of our Consumer-to-Consumer segment to our overall results, constant currency results have been provided in the table below for consolidated revenues and for our Consumer-to-Consumer segment revenues. Constant currency results assume foreign revenues are translated from foreign currencies to the United States dollar, net of the effect of foreign currency hedges, at rates consistent with those in the prior year. Constant currency measures are non-GAAP financial measures and are provided so that revenue can be viewed without the effect of fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, which is consistent with how management evaluates our revenue results and trends. We believe that these measures provide management and investors with information about revenue results and trends that eliminates currency volatility, thereby providing greater clarity regarding, and increasing the comparability of, our underlying results and trends. These disclosures are provided in addition to, and not as a substitute for, the percentage change in revenue on a GAAP basis for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the prior year. Other companies may calculate and define similarly labeled items differently, which may limit the usefulness of this measure for comparative purposes.

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The following table sets forth our consolidated revenue results for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020:

Year Ended December 31,

Foreign currency impact(a) 1 %

Revenue change, constant currency adjusted - (Non-GAAP) 4 %

(a)

Fluctuations in the United States dollar compared to foreign currencies, net of the impact of foreign currency hedges, resulted in an increase to revenues of $18.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 when compared to foreign currency rates in the prior year.

For the year ended December 31, 2021, GAAP revenues increased when compared to the prior year, primarily due to continued recovery from the negative impacts of COVID-19 on our prior year results as previously discussed above. For the year ended December 31, 2021, transactions and revenues from our Digital Money Transfer services, including from white label partnerships, continued to grow. We believe that our growth in Digital Money Transfer transactions for the year ended December 31, 2021 was due, in part, to shifts in consumer behavior to send money through digital channels, including as a result of COVID-19. However, this growth rate decelerated throughout the year as a result of the strong growth in Digital Money Transfer transactions we experienced in the prior year. Revenues were also positively impacted by growth in our Business Solutions segment. Fluctuations between the United States dollar and other currencies positively impacted GAAP revenues by 1% for the year ended December 31, 2021 when compared to the prior year.

Operating Expenses Overview

Enhanced Regulatory Compliance

The financial services industry, including money services businesses, continues to be subject to increasingly strict legal and regulatory requirements, and we continue to focus on and regularly review our compliance programs. In connection with these reviews, and in light of growing and rapidly evolving regulatory complexity and heightened attention of, and increased dialogue with, governmental and regulatory authorities related to our compliance activities, we have made, and continue to make, enhancements to our processes and systems designed to detect and prevent money laundering, terrorist financing, and fraud and other illicit activity, and enhancements designed to improve consumer protection. Some of these changes have had, and we believe will continue to have, an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Restructuring-Related Expenses

On August 1, 2019, our Board of Directors approved a plan to change our operating model and improve our business processes and cost structure by reorganizing our senior management, including those managers reporting to our chief executive officer, reducing our headcount, and consolidating various facilities. We incurred approximately $150 million of total expenses through December 31, 2020, with approximately $110 million related to severance and employee-related benefits and approximately $40 million related to costs associated with the relocation of various operations to other Company facilities, facility closures, lease terminations, consulting, and other expenses. As of December 31, 2020, all expenses associated with this plan have been incurred. In 2020, the plan generated expense savings of more than $50 million. For 2021, the plan generated expense savings of approximately $100 million.

For the year ended December 31, 2020, we incurred $36.8 million related to this plan. Of this amount, $4.5 million and $32.3 million are included within Cost of services and Selling, general, and administrative, respectively, in the Consolidated Statements of Income. Refer to Part II, Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, Note 4, Restructuring-Related Expenses for further discussion.

These expenses are specific to this initiative; however, the types of expenses related to this initiative are similar to expenses that we have previously incurred and can reasonably be expected to incur in the future.

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Cost of Services

Cost of services primarily consists of agent commissions, which represented approximately 60% of total cost of services for the year ended December 31, 2021. Cost of services increased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the prior year primarily due to increases in information technology costs, bank fees associated with digital transactions, and agent commissions in our Consumer-to-Consumer money transfer business, partially offset by a reduction in credit losses.

Selling, General, and Administrative

Selling, general, and administrative expenses increased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the prior year due to increases in employee-related expenses, including incentive compensation and as a result of reduced hiring that we implemented in response to COVID-19 in the prior year, and costs related to strategic initiatives, including for the review and closing of mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, partially offset by a reduction in restructuring-related expenses and fluctuations between the United States dollar and foreign currencies.

Total Other Expense, Net

Total other expense, net during the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the prior year was impacted by $109.8 million in pension settlement charges, as further described in Part II, Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, Note 12, Employee Benefit Plans, and costs associated with the April 2021 repayment of our 3.6% unsecured notes due in 2022. These impacts were partially offset by a $47.9 million gain recorded from the sale of a substantial majority of the shares we held as a noncontrolling investor in a private company for cash proceeds of $50.9 million and a reduction in interest expense driven by lower average debt balances outstanding and a lower weighted-average interest rate on our outstanding debt.

Income Taxes

Our effective tax rates on pre-tax income were 13.9% and 12.9% for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The increase in our effective tax rate for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the prior year was primarily due to deferred taxes from changes in certain of our permanent reinvestment assertions relating to our decision to classify our Business Solutions business as held for sale in the current period, partially offset by discrete tax benefits associated with the pension termination and other items.

We have established contingency reserves for a variety of material, known tax exposures. As of December 31, 2021, the total amount of tax contingency reserves was $318.6 million, including accrued interest and penalties, net of related items. Our tax reserves reflect our judgment as to the resolution of the issues involved if subject to judicial review or other settlement. While we believe that our reserves are adequate to cover reasonably expected tax risks, there can be no assurance that, in all instances, an issue raised by a tax authority will be resolved at a financial cost that does not exceed our related reserve. With respect to these reserves, our income tax expense would include: (i) any changes in tax reserves arising from material changes in facts and circumstances (i.e., new information) surrounding a tax issue during the period, and (ii) any difference from our tax position as recorded in the financial statements and the final resolution of a tax issue during the period. Such resolution could materially increase or decrease income tax expense in our consolidated financial statements in future periods and could impact our operating cash flows.

A significant proportion of our profits are foreign-derived. For the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, 106% and 100%, respectively, of our pre-tax income was derived from foreign sources. While the income tax imposed by any one foreign country is not material to us, our overall effective tax rate could be adversely affected by changes in foreign tax laws.

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Earnings Per Share

During the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, basic earnings per share were $1.98 and $1.81, respectively, and diluted earnings per share were $1.97 and $1.79, respectively. Outstanding options to purchase Western Union stock and unvested shares of restricted stock are excluded from basic shares outstanding. Diluted earnings per share reflects the potential dilution that could occur if outstanding stock options at the presented dates are exercised and shares of restricted stock have vested. As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, there were 2.3 million and 1.6 million, respectively, of shares excluded from the diluted earnings per share calculation under the treasury stock method, primarily due to outstanding restricted stock units and options to purchase shares of Western Union stock, as the assumed proceeds of the restricted stock and options per unit were above our weighted-average share price during the periods and their effect was anti-dilutive.

Earnings per share for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the prior year was positively impacted by the previously described factors impacting net income and a lower number of shares outstanding. The lower number of shares outstanding for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the prior year is due to stock repurchases exceeding stock issuances related to our stock compensation programs.

Segment Discussion

We manage our business around the consumers and businesses we serve and the types of services we offer. Each of our segments addresses a different combination of consumer groups, distribution networks, and services offered. Our segments are Consumer-to-Consumer and Business Solutions. On August 4, 2021, we entered into an agreement to sell our Business Solutions business to Goldfinch Partners LLC and The Baupost Group LLC, as further described above.

The business segment measurements provided to, and evaluated by, our Chief Operating Decision Maker (“CODM”) are computed in accordance with the following principles:

•

The accounting policies of the segments are the same as those described in the summary of significant accounting policies.

•

Corporate costs, including stock-based compensation and other overhead, are allocated to the segments primarily based on a percentage of the segments’ revenue compared to total revenue.

•

As described in Part II, Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, Note 4, Restructuring-Related Expenses, on August 1, 2019, our Board of Directors approved an overall plan to change our operating model and improve our business processes and cost structure by reducing our headcount and consolidating various facilities. For the year ended December 31, 2020, we incurred $36.8 million related to this plan. While certain of these expenses may be identifiable to our segments, primarily our Consumer-to-Consumer segment, the expenses are not included in the measurement of segment operating income provided to the CODM for purposes of assessing segment performance and decision making with respect to resource allocation.

•

All items not included in operating income are excluded from the segments.

The following table sets forth the components of segment revenues as a percentage of the consolidated totals for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020:

Year Ended December 31,

Consumer-to-Consumer 87 % 87 %

Business Solutions 8 % 8 %

Other 5 % 5 %

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Consumer-to-Consumer Segment

The following table sets forth our Consumer-to-Consumer segment results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020:

Year Ended December 31,

(dollars and transactions in millions) 2021 2020 % Change

Operating income margin 22 % 22 %

Key indicator:

Consumer-to-Consumer transactions 305.9 290.5 5 %

Our Consumer-to-Consumer money transfer service facilitates money transfers sent from our retail agent locations worldwide and our Digital Money Transfer services. The segment includes five geographic regions whose functions are primarily related to generating, managing, and maintaining agent relationships and localized marketing activities. We include Digital Money Transfer transactions in our regions, including transactions from our arrangements with financial institutions and other third parties to enable such entities to offer money transfer services to their own customers under their brands. By means of common processes and systems, these regions, including Digital Money Transfer transactions, create one interconnected global network for consumer transactions, thereby constituting one Consumer-to-Consumer money transfer business and one operating segment.

Transaction volume is the primary generator of revenue in our Consumer-to-Consumer segment. A Consumer-to-Consumer transaction constitutes the transfer of funds to a designated recipient utilizing one of our consumer money transfer services. The geographic split for transactions and revenue in the table that follows, including Digital Money Transfer transactions, is determined based upon the region where the money transfer is initiated. Included in each region’s transaction and revenue percentages in the tables below are Digital Money Transfer transactions for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020. Where reported separately in the discussion below, Digital Money Transfer, and its subset westernunion.com, consist of 100% of the transactions conducted and funded through those respective channels.

The table below sets forth revenue and transaction changes by geographic region compared to the prior year. Consumer-to-Consumer segment constant currency revenue growth/(decline) is a non-GAAP financial measure, as further discussed in Revenues Overview above.

Constant

Revenue Foreign Currency

Growth Exchange Revenue

as Reported - Translation Growth(a) - Transaction

(GAAP) Impact (Non-GAAP) Growth / (Decline)

Consumer-to-Consumer regional growth/(decline):

North America (United States & Canada) ("NA") 1 % 0 % 1 % (1 )%

Europe and Russia/CIS ("EU & CIS") 3 % 3 % 0 % 13 %

Middle East, Africa, and South Asia ("MEASA") 4 % 0 % 4 % 10 %

Latin America and the Caribbean ("LACA") 22 % (2 )% 24 % 9 %

East Asia and Oceania ("APAC") 6 % 3 % 3 % (7 )%

Total Consumer-to-Consumer growth: 4 % 1 % 3 % 5 %

Digital Money Transfer(b) 22 % 1 % 21 % 32 %

westernunion.com(b) 18 % 1 % 17 % 19 %

(a)

Constant currency revenue growth assumes that revenues denominated in foreign currencies are translated to the United States dollar, net of the effect of foreign currency hedges, at rates consistent with those in the prior year.

(b)

Digital Money Transfer revenues have been included in the regions above. As noted above, westernunion.com is a subset of Digital Money Transfer and is included in the regions and Digital Money Transfer revenues.

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The table below sets forth regional revenues as a percentage of our Consumer-to-Consumer revenue for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020:

Year Ended December 31,

Consumer-to-Consumer revenue as a percentage of segment revenue:

LACA 9 % 8 %

APAC 7 % 6 %

Digital Money Transfer, which is included in the regional percentages above, represented approximately 24% and 20% of our Consumer-to-Consumer revenues for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.

Our consumers transferred $109.0 billion and $96.1 billion in Consumer-to-Consumer principal for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, of which $104.1 billion and $90.6 billion, respectively, related to cross-border principal. The increase in principal and cross-border principal transferred during the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the prior year is primarily attributable to growth in Digital Money Transfer. Consumer-to-Consumer principal is the amount of consumer funds transferred to the designated recipient. Cross-border principal is the amount of consumer funds transferred to a designated recipient in a country or territory that differs from the country or territory from which the transaction was initiated. Consumer-to-Consumer principal and cross-border principal are metrics used by management to monitor and better understand the growth in our underlying business relative to competitors, as well as changes in our market share of global remittances.

Revenues

Consumer-to-Consumer money transfer revenue increased 4% and transactions increased 5% for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the prior year, including as a result of the impacts from the worldwide actions related to COVID-19. Revenues increased primarily due to continued recovery from the negative impacts of COVID-19 on our prior year results as previously discussed above. For the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the prior year, transactions and revenues from our Digital Money Transfer services, including from white label partnerships, continued to grow. We believe that our growth in Digital Money Transfer transactions was due, in part, to shifts in consumer behavior to send money through digital channels, including as a result of COVID-19. However, this growth rate decelerated throughout the year as a result of the strong growth in Digital Money Transfer transactions we experienced in the prior year. The spread between transaction volumes and revenue was primarily attributable to growth in our digital white label partnerships, which have a lower revenue per transaction than Western Union branded transactions. Fluctuations in the United States dollar compared to foreign currencies, net of the impact of foreign currency hedges, positively impacted revenue by 1% for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the prior year. Constant currency revenue increased 3% for the year ended December 31, 2021.

In our Consumer-to-Consumer regions, the increase in NA revenue for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the prior year was primarily due to cross-border transaction growth, partially offset by declines in transactions sent and received within the United States and in transactions sent from the United States to Cuba, as these money transfer services have been suspended since the fourth quarter of 2020. The EU & CIS region experienced strong revenue growth in Russia, and transaction volumes for both the EU & CIS and MEASA regions continued to benefit from growth in Digital Money Transfer, including white label partnerships. The revenue growth in the LACA region was primarily due to an increase in principal transferred during the year ended December 31, 2021, compared to the prior year. Price increases in APAC were offset by transaction declines for the year ended December 31, 2021, compared to the prior year. Digital Money Transfer revenue, including westernunion.com, increased compared to the prior year due to an increase in digital transaction volumes, partially offset by price reductions.

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We have historically implemented price reductions or price increases throughout many of our global corridors. We will likely continue to implement price changes from time to time in response to competition and other factors. Price reductions generally reduce margins and adversely affect financial results in the short term and may also adversely affect financial results in the long term if transaction volumes do not increase sufficiently. Price increases may adversely affect transaction volumes, as consumers may not use our services if we fail to price them appropriately.

Operating Income

Consumer-to-Consumer operating income increased 6% during the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the prior year primarily due to the increase in revenues, as discussed above, a reduction in credit losses, and fluctuations in the United States dollar compared to foreign currencies, partially offset by increases in information technology costs and employee-related expenses, including incentive compensation and as a result of reduced hiring that we implemented in response to COVID-19 in the prior year period, and increases in agent commissions and bank fees, which generally vary with revenues.

Business Solutions

The following table sets forth our Business Solutions segment results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020:

Year Ended December 31,

Operating income $ 95.5 $ 24.4 (a)

Operating income margin 23 % 7 %

(a)

Calculation not meaningful.

Revenues

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WU · 10-K · period ended 2021-12-31

Item 1A. Risk Factors

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

Item 2. Properties

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Item 6. [Reserved]

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

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WU · 10-K · period ended 2021-12-31

Item 1A. Risk Factors

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

Item 2. Properties

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Item 6. [Reserved]

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

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