Western Union will begin sending remittances to Cuba from the entire territory of the United States starting this Thursday and its users will also be able to carry out transactions digitally and through the company's mobile application, which largely reestablishes its operations on the island.
The company announced that the decision constitutes a significant expansion of its services after ending the testing phase for money transfers to Cuba, started on January 4 in 24 stores in the Miami metropolitan area and later extended to 343 locations in the state of Florida.
"Today, the pilot program has grown to more than 4,400 retail stores in the United States and Puerto Rico, as well as the availability of the digital shipping service of WesternUnion.com and the Western Union mobile app," the company said in a statement.
Currently, customers can send money from the United States to recipients with bank accounts and debit cards in Cuba at Popular Savings Bank, Metropolitan Bank and Bank of Credit and Commerce (BANDEC).
To process transactions to Cuba, Western Union signed an agreement with Orbit S.A, which has a license from the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) as a non-bank financial institution to process money transfers to Cuba from February 2022.
As stipulated since the launch of the pilot program, funds can only be received in bank accounts and debit cards and the service is limited to consumer money transfers only. US customers can send up to $2,000 per transaction with a valid ID.
Customers cannot send funds to their own bank accounts and MLC debit cards in Cuba, Western Union reminded.
The company Orbit S.A. Almost simultaneously, it posted the announcement on its Facebook page and said Western Union's decision will expand its operations from the United States. Orbit S.A was already managing remittances to Cuba from Europe and Canada since the beginning of 2022.
For 21 years Cuba received remittances through Western Union, but in November 2020 the Trump administration interrupted the service, alleging that FINCIMEX, linked to the military conglomerate GAESA, was in charge of operations in the country. With this measure, the government saw its access to foreign currency sent by Cubans limited, which exceeded $1.5 billion US dollars per year.
Although Orbit S.A. was forced to present documentation proving that it is a company unrelated to the Armed Forces, experts and scholars of the Cuban business system consider that its creation was a maneuver to facilitate a way out of the demands of the US government and unblock the flow of remittances to Cuba. , and its links with FINCIMEX are still close.
Orbit indicated this Thursday that the beneficiaries of remittances in Cuba now have the possibility of receiving them directly into their bank accounts in foreign currency, a service that is made possible "thanks to commercial links signed with international financial companies and that favors both the recipients of remittances and to the senders of these, by being able to access fast, secure and less expensive banking channels for processing".
Previously, two companies based in Florida used Orbit S.A. in fund transfers from the United States to Cuba: VaCuba and Cubamax, both with authorization from the Treasury Department since the end of 2022. In this way, the restriction on money transfers that prevailed during the Trump era began to be relaxed.
After the 9/11 protests, President Joe Biden ordered an analysis the issue of remittances to Cuba and they would look for flexible solutions to allow natural persons to send money to Cuba, as long as US laws were complied with.
The relaunch of Western Union in Cuba is also positive news for those who see it as a step to revive the nascent private sector in the country, which is going through one of the worst economic crises in its history.
Western Union plans to continue expanding the operations program this year and is studying the possibility of resuming money transfers to Cuba from third countries, an option also suspended during the Trump era.
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