The influx of migrant workers into the country has been good news for money transfer company Western Union, writes Ciarán Brennan

More than 130 years ago money transfer company Western Union played a key role in Ireland's international development. It was the first company to link Ireland with the rest of the world in 1873, when it laid the first transatlantic cable in Valentia Island, Co Kerry.

But it wasn't until 1990 that the US company offered its services in Ireland. At that stage, it was embarking on international expansion and Ireland with a large emigrant population was a natural hunting ground for a company that is used by immigrant workers to send money back to their families, by travellers who need cash in emergency situations and by students studying abroad who get financial support from home.

"We followed the migration trends wherever we saw that there was emigration growth between different countries," says AJ Hanna, regional vice- president and Western Union's boss for northern and western Europe.

In 1990 Western Union partnered with Fexco and started to build a network. Shortly after that, An Post was brought into their franchise.

"With those two partners today, we have managed to build a network of approximately 900 locations throughout Ireland."

While remittance was a core element of its business, the service here quickly evolved to other areas such as gift giving.

"You have a huge Irish community in New York and Chicago that sends money back home to Ireland, not just on St Patrick's Day, but on people's birthdays and anniversaries and special occasions. And also you have the students who travel. They look for the family in Ireland to send money to them, to pay rent and pay tuition fees."

But in the past five years, the profile of its customers here has changed dramatically, with the boom in the economy and the influx of migrant workers.

Hanna said the company does not break down country specific figures but described the growth in Ireland as phenomenal over the past three years.

"A lot of that has been contributed to by the growth of immigration," he says.

"We see more and more corridors opening. Five or 10 years ago, there were a limited number of corridors where people sent from Ireland and it was more to people of Irish background. Today, with the influx of immigrants from all over the world - from Nigeria, Brazil, the Philippines, the US, the UK, Poland, Latvia, you name it, we are starting to see more frequency and higher value of transactions."

Western Union is a natural first stop for many immigrants who find themselves in a new country, he says.

"A very important fact is that you don't need a bank account on the send or the receive side and I think that is something that we in the developed world always take for granted, that everyone is banked."

With the opening up of financial markets in Europe and globally, it is a business that may start to attract the attention of banks. But Hanna says that the company is not in direct competition with the banks.

"We see ourselves as complementing and supplementing banks. They typically have large transfers, mostly commercial transfers. We see our service as a convenient service for people who want to send money, easily, frequently and flexibly."

In fact, he says that Western Union services are often regarded as an entry level into the world of financial services.

"Banks see us as a strong partner because we are a billboard for attracting the immigrant consumer," he says.

"The immigrant lifecycle changes over time. When they first get into a country one of their most urgent needs is to send money home, often paying off the trip that has been funded through family and friends. That changes over time and they become more interested in saving, getting loans, mortgages."

That has not escaped the notice of Western Union itself and Hanna says it may consider offering banking services here.

"As we continue to evaluate opportunities here in Ireland, we may open up branches.

"We haven't really made a decision. We have a Western Union bank in Austria and we have the euro zone passport and licence for that and it is easily transportable."

Any new bank entering in Ireland would attract a lot of attention, particularly its level of fees. It's an area where Western Union's money transfer service has come in for criticism in the past. But Hanna argues that the level of service offered justifies the fees.

"Our fees might be controversial and in some instances they might be higher than our competitors but they are paying for distribution we have," he says.

"Very frequently people don't get the full picture of what the fee is. We always disclose our fees to the consumer up front so that the consumer knows when they send the money how much is going to be paid out on the receive side. We do not charge on the receive side. What drives fees is basically volume - the more volume, the more competitive the fee."