WU Expands Services in Two U.S. States With Vallarta's Help

The Western Union Company WU recently joined forces with Vallarta Supermarkets to make its money transfer services available at every Vallarta location throughout California and Arizona. Customers can visit any Vallarta Supermarkets location beginning Feb. 28 to take advantage of WU services.

In addition to WU’s services, customers can avail retail money orders, bill payment options and prepaid services—providing added convenience and flexible financial solutions all in one place.

The recent move reflects an underlying motive to help customers visiting any of the abovementioned Vallarta locations with enhanced and speedy financial transactions while completing their regular grocery shopping.

Partnership with Vallarta is indicative of Western Union’s sincere efforts to establish a solid footprint across California and Arizona, courtesy of Vallarta’s extensive presence. Vallarta operates 65 stores across California and Arizona as of 2026 and employs more than 9,000 team members.

This latest initiative reflects Western Union’s ongoing efforts to support its global digital expansion strategy, which aims to attract a broader customer base through a wide range of service offerings. By making the Western Union platform available at Vallarta’s targeted locations, customers will benefit from faster and more convenient money transfers, which is expected to drive higher usage of its services. As a result, the move is likely to contribute to continued growth in Western Union’s digital money transfer revenues. Branded Digital business, a part of the company’s Consumer Money Transfer segment, reported 7% year-over-year increase in revenues in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Through strategic partnerships with financial service providers and meaningful investments in technology, Western Union has built a strong and scalable digital platform. The platform’s capabilities have positioned the company as a preferred partner for seamless global money transfers, while also helping advance digital financial services in underserved markets.

Other Companies Engaged in Cross-Border Business

Apart from Western Union, other companies with a strong cross-border business include Mastercard Incorporated MA, PayPal Holdings, Inc. PYPL and Visa Inc. V.

MA’s cross-border platform, Mastercard Move, empowers banks, non-bank financial institutions and their customers—including direct disbursers—with secure, near-instant money transfer solutions, both within countries and across borders. The suite of solutions covers more than 200 countries and supports 150+ currencies. Cross-border volumes improved 14% on a local currency basis in the fourth quarter of 2025.

PayPal’s global scale, supported by licenses in key regions and its subsidiaries in Luxembourg, the UK and Singapore, allows it to facilitate seamless cross-border payments. Its cross-border transactions typically generate higher revenues and margins than domestic transactions. In the fourth quarter, cross-border total payment volume improved 6% year over year.

Visa’s cross-border platforms are specialized solutions designed to facilitate fast, secure and efficient movement of money across international borders. At the center of this is Visa Direct, a platform that enables near real-time payments to cards, bank accounts and wallets globally. Another platform is Visa B2B Connect, which focuses on business-to-business cross-border payments. Cross-border volumes of V advanced 12% year over year in the first quarter of fiscal 2026.

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Mastercard Incorporated (MA): Free Stock Analysis Report

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The Western Union Company (WU): Free Stock Analysis Report

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL): Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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