Money gram International Money Transfer

MoneyGram International, Inc. is an American cross-border P2P payments and money transfer company based in the United States with headquarters in Dallas, Texas. It has an operations center in St. Louis Park, Minnesota and regional and local offices around the world. MoneyGram businesses are divided into two categories: Global Funds Transfers and Financial Paper Products. The company provides its service to individuals and businesses through a network of agents and financial institutions.

In 2014, MoneyGram was the second largest provider of money transfers in the world. The company operates in more than 200 countries and territories with a global network of about 347,000 agent offices.

MoneyGram Systems (1988–1997)

MoneyGram was formed in 1988 as a subsidiary of Integrated Payment Systems Inc. Integrated Payment Systems was a subsidiary of First Data Corporation, which was itself a subsidiary of American Express. In 1992, First Data was spun off from American Express and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. First Data Corporation later merged with First Financial, the owners of rival Western Union. In order to approve the merger, the Federal Trade Commission forced First Data to sell Integrated Payment Systems.

Thomas Cook Global Foreign Exchange, under the stewardship of John Bavister, launched a re-engineered money transfer service in 1994. Branded as MoneyGram, the venture saw the partnering of the global travel giant with First Data Corp.

In 1996, Integrated Payment Systems, the nation’s second largest non-bank consumer money transfer business, became its own publicly traded company and was renamed MoneyGram Payment Systems Inc. In 1997, James F. Calvano, former president of Western Union, became MoneyGram Payment Systems CEO. By the late 1990s, MoneyGram Payment Systems had served customers at over 22,000 locations in 100 countries.

MoneyGram International Ltd. was established in 1997 by MoneyGram Payment Systems Inc. and Thomas Cook, a year after the company had gone public. At the time when MoneyGram International was established, MoneyGram Payment Systems owned 51 percent of the company, while the other 49 percent was owned by the Thomas Cook Group.

MoneyGram International (1998–present)

In April 1998, Viad Corp acquired MoneyGram Payment Systems Inc. for $287 million. MoneyGram was then folded into Viad’s Travelers Express in Minneapolis. In November 2000, the MoneyGram brand and business was sold to Travelex as part of its acquisition of Thomas Cook Financial Services for £400m. In 2003, Travelers Express gained full ownership of the MoneyGram network, including MoneyGram International. Later that year, Viad spun off Travelers Express as an independent company. In January 2004 and Travelers Express was renamed to MoneyGram International Inc. In June 2004, Viad sold MoneyGram and it became a publicly traded, individual entity.

By 2006, MoneyGram International had expanded internationally to include over 96,000 agents in regions such as the Asian-Pacific, Eastern Europe, and Central America. The company had also introduced additional services such as bill payment and online money transfers.

During the financial crisis of 2007–2008, MoneyGram’s shares fell 96 percent from 2007 to 2009. It lost more than $1.6 billion from investments in securities backed by risky mortgages in 2008, and the losses led the company to sell a majority stake to Thomas H. Lee Partners and Goldman Sachs in exchange for a cash infusion. During the drop, U.S. Bancorp shifted its money transfer services to Western Union. The company became profitable again in 2009.

Amid MoneyGram’s turnaround, Pamela Patsley became the executive chairwoman of the company in January 2009 and was later named CEO in September of that year. In November 2010, MoneyGram officially relocated its global headquarters to the city of Dallas, Texas. The company continues to maintain global operations and information technology centers in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In 2013, MoneyGram began considering a sale. In 2014, MoneyGram lost a relationship with Wal-Mart Stores and then began restructuring to cut costs. From their peak in 2013 until late 2015, shares fell about 70%. MoneyGram closed a call center in Lakewood, Colorado resulting in over 500 layoffs. Furthermore, MoneyGram closed its 376-person Brooklyn Center operation in 2015. MoneyGram has moved numerous positions to Warsaw, Poland from its Colorado and Minnesota locations for cut costs further. In 2015, the company’s agent network in Africa reached 25,000 locations, including an agreement with the Mauritius Post Office.

Between late October 2016 and January 2017, MoneyGram’s shares doubled in value. On January 26, 2017, Ant Financial Services Group announced a deal to acquire MoneyGram International for $880 million; the deal subsequently collapsed after it was rejected by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

On June 17th 2019, MoneyGram announced they were partnering with Ripple to utilize the digital asset XRP for cross-border remittance.

In July 2020, Digital Financial Services LLC and MoneyGram have collaborated to provide overseas remittance services in the UAE. Through this partnership, eWallet consumers will enable real-time foreign money transfers to friends and families in more than 200 countries and territories around the world through an vast network of mobile wallet providers, bank account deposit facilities and more than 350,000 walk-in locations.

If you’re sending money online:

• Set up a MoneyGram account, if you don’t already have one.
• Log into your account.
• Enter the country you’re sending to, then the amount you want to send. Remember, MoneyGram will add a fee to the figure you’re charged.
• Give the receiver’s details. The name you give must be their full, legal name, meaning the one that appears on their official ID. They’ll need to prove their identity to pick up the funds, so it’s important to check you get this right.
• Say how the receiver wants to pick up their money to a bank account or mobile wallet, or in cash.
• Choose how you want to pay. You can fund the transfer either from your bank account, or with a credit or debit card. Be aware that if you choose to pay by card, your issuer is likely to charge a fee.
• Give details about yourself. This is needed so that MoneyGram can check your identity. These will include your date of birth and email address.
• Check the information you’ve given is correct, then send.
• If MoneyGram needs further information, you’ll be contacted via the email address you gave, so it needs to be one you check every day.

If you’re sending money in person:

• You can only send money in cash using this method, not with a credit or debit card.
• Find the MoneyGram location that’s most convenient for you. You can use MoneyGram’s location finder to help you.
• Make sure you have your photo ID with you. You’ll need to show this to the agent.
• You’ll need to provide the recipient’s full, legal name as listed on their own ID.
• You’ll also need to know the recipient’s location, plus the amount you want to send.
• Remember that MoneyGram will charge a fee for sending money internationally, so make sure you have enough to cover that, as well as the amount you’re sending.
• Give the agent the correct amount, including the fee.
• You’ll get an eight-digit reference number. Let your recipient know this as soon as possible, as they’ll need it when picking up the money.

If you’re sending to an international bank account:

• Log into your MoneyGram online account. If you don’t have one already, you’ll need to set it up first.
• Provide the full, legal name of the person you’re sending to.
• Select the “Account Deposit” option.
• You’ll now see the total cost including fees, as well as the exchange rate you’re getting.
• You may want to compare the total costs with a specialist money service, such as Wise. The Wise borderless account is an alternative way to send money internationally; it also gives you an account you can use to receive funds in dozens of currencies.
• Choose how you want to pay. This can be with a credit or debit card, or if you prefer you can pay straight from your own account. Paying with a credit card can cost a little extra due to card issuer fees.
• Enter the requested personal information. This is to ensure MoneyGram can verify your identity.
• Provide full details of the recipient. You’ll need to know their bank account number.
• Check the information you’ve given is correct, then send.

If you’re sending to a mobile wallet:

• Check the country you’re sending to offers this service. MoneyGram can only send to wallets with M-Pesa accounts in Tanzania, Kenya, and Romania; or to Econet wallets in Zimbabwe.
• If you don’t meet the requirements in step 1, you’ll need to use a different method to send your money. If you do meet them, read on.
• You’ll need to give the mobile number of the person you’re sending money to, including the international dial code. Check with them first that the number is linked to their wallet, otherwise the transaction won’t work.
• The international dial codes you’ll need to know are: +40 for Romania, +254 for Kenya, +255 for Tanzania, and +263 for Zimbabwe.
• Choose whether to pay with cash, or with a credit or debit card. Remember that credit card transactions may come with a fee added on by your card issuer.
• Provide the information requested about yourself.
• Check everything is correct, then commit to send.

Products

MoneyGram products

MoneyGram Money Transfer

MoneyGram Bill Payments Services allowing consumers to make urgent payments or pay routine bills to certain creditors.

MoneyGram As a service; enables enterprise customers to leverage the company’s core capabilities as productized service offerings to meet their various business needs and add services and scale.

Financial paper

Money Orders: MoneyGram is the second largest money order supplier.

Official Checks: MoneyGram offers official check outsourcing services which are available to financial institutions in the United States. Official Checks are used by consumers where a payee requires a check drawn on a bank and by financial institutions to pay their own obligations.

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency Cash Network: Through a relationship with Coinme, consumers can purchase or exchange bitcoin for U.S. dollars at select MoneyGram retail locations.