OREANDA-NEWS On March 10, the American fast transfer system Western Union announced the suspension of its work in Russia and Belarus. The main clients of this service are considered to be migrant workers - every year they transfer billions of dollars to their families in other countries. However, leaving the Western Union market will not affect migrants who work in Russia — it has a lot of competitors here.

According to the president of the Federation of Migrants in Russia Vadim Kozhenov, the termination of Western Union in Russia will not be a disaster. Moreover, it is unlikely that anyone will notice him among the migrants. Visitors now use other services - mainly "Golden Crown" or "Asia Credit". Only a few people use the American system of fast transfers, and they will be able to find an alternative, Kozhenov told the company's Secret.

According to the Central Bank, in 11 months of 2021, $7.8 billion was sent from Russia through transfer systems. The money was transferred through Western Union, Zolotaya Korona, Unistream, Contact and Russian Post systems.

Western Union was going to stop making transfers within Russia from April 1. This decision was due to the low demand — in particular, due to the competition of bank card transfers and the System of fast payments. Western Union was going to focus only on cross-border transfers.

Western Union announced on March 10 that it would suspend operations in Russia and Belarus. Representatives of the company said they would support Ukrainian customers and internally displaced persons. The company decided to donate to the provision of humanitarian aid and free money transfer services.