MoneyGram’s Platform Expands to 7 New Countries

MoneyGram (NASDAQ:MGI) announced on Tuesday (November 27) that it has expanded its digital presence to seven new countries, bringing its presence to 24 countries total.

The company said that users of its MoneyGram.com platform can perform a variety of financial transactions, including sending money to more than two billion bank accounts or any MoneyGram location in over 200 countries.

Countries MoneyGram has expanded include Switzerland, Malta, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia.

“Throughout 2018 we have successfully delivered on our strategy to expand our digital services internationally,” Alex Holmes, CEO of MoneyGram, said in the release. “We have increased the availability of MoneyGram.com from three markets to 24 markets in just 10 months.”

The company also said that it has expanded the capability of its online platform which now lets users find a MoneyGram location, check the status of a transaction and estimate transfer fees.

“We will continue to build and deploy our digital services to offer our customers more choice and to ensure we are well positioned to compete in today’s competitive industry,” Holmes said.

MoneyGram said that its investment in digital services is translating into positive returns as it claims online and mobile transactions have increased by 16 percent year-over-year. The company noted its digital platform accounts for 16 percent of its total money transfer revenue.

Prior to its expansion, MoneyGram announced its third quarter financial results in early November, highlighting a 13 percent decline in revenue. In terms of its money transfer vertical, the company reported revenues of US$304.2 million,which translates to a 15 percent decline as compared to the prior-year quarter.

Furthermore, the company reported a net loss of US$20.9 million for Q3 as compared to a net income of US$7.7 million for the third quarter of 2017. However, MoneyGram said that US$1.2 million was spent on restructuring and reorganization costs.

The company noted that most of the revenue decline was due to compliance controls implemented through the quarter.

In the company’s earnings call, Holmes said the company expanded into “important markets” like Canada and Italy.

“Expanding our online platform is important, but with more than 70 percent of our online transactions initialized on a mobile device, the need for a customer centric native mobile app is even more critical,” he said.

At the time of the call, Holmes revealed the company is testing its online platform in eight additional countries which could be rolled out in the coming weeks.

Holmes also revealed that the company is working on expanding its mobile app to 16 countries including its largest market, the US. While the app includes most of the features found on the online platform, it also adds a biometric identification for security purposes.

Additionally, Holmes said that MoneyGram would introduce a loyalty program which would mean that the consumers could potentially get additional perks for using the service, while an “digital receive” feature was also teased.

“We’re also excited about how the app will tie into our new refreshed loyalty program, which is designed to improve the customer experience by rewarding loyalty and personalizing communications,” Holmes said.

Following the announcement, shares of MoneyGram were up 2.4 percent in the two day period and closed the trading session on Wednesday (November 28) at US$2.15. The stock has a “Sell” ranking on TradingView with 12 verticals against, nine in neutral and seven in favor.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Bala Yogesh, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.