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The Philippine National Bank (PNB), the Philippines’ largest offshore bank network, and Western Union (NYSE: WU), a leader in global payment services, announced an agreement to offer Western Union® Money TransferSM services at 311 PNB branches in the Philippines by July 2010 and at 87 offices across 12 countries in a phased approach. In the photo (from left to right): Western Union managing director and senior vice president for Asia Pacific Drina Yue, Western Union senior vice president for Pacific & Indochina Patricia Riingen, PNB director Dr. Lucio Tan, and PNB president & CEO Eugene Acevedo officiated the signing ceremony in Manila, the Philippines, on May 25, 2010.

Western Union alliance with Philippines’ largest offshore bank network strengthens Western Union Money Transfer Services in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific

The Philippine National Bank (PNB), the Philippines’ largest offshore bank network, and Western Union (NYSE: WU), a leader in global payment services, announced today an agreement to offer Western Union® Money TransferSM services at 311 PNB branches in the Philippines by July 2010 and at 87 offices across 12 countries in a phased approach.

PNB will offer Western Union Money Transfer services across three continents in 13 countries.

With an extensive urban and rural network in the Philippines, PNB’s global footprint mirrors countries popular with Filipinos working and living abroad permanently, including Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Guam, Hong Kong, Japan, Italy, Spain, Singapore, United Kingdom, and the United States.

Bringing together PNB, a Philippine icon, and Western Union, a global leader in money transfer services with a heritage of 150 years is significant, said Eugene Acevedo, President and CEO of PNB.

“It gives our consumers, especially Filipinos, the added comfort of familiarity of a home-grown bank to go with Western Union’s values of convenience, reliability and speed when sending money to family and loved ones.

“Our agreement with Western Union strengthens PNB as the bank of choice for both our local and global customers as we continually enhance the portfolio of financial services offered to our variety of customers,” he said. “This agreement reinforces our commitment to our customers and is an important initiative to deliver sustained and enhanced value to shareholders towards PNB’s goal of becoming the leading bank in facilitating in-bound and out-bound money transfer services.

To add an iconic Filipino bank to Western Union’s global network of 420,000 agent locations in over 200 countries and territories is of strategic significance, particularly with the Philippines being the fourth largest remittance-receiving country in the world, according to the latest World Bank figures, said Drina Yue, managing director and senior vice president, Western Union Asia Pacific.

“Offering Western Union Money Transfer services through PNB locations across three continents in 13 countries reinforces our consumer value propositions of convenient, reliable and fast money transfer services across an unbeatable global network,” said Yue. “It also expands our network in the Philippines as well as strengthens our rural presence mirroring PNB’s equally weighted urban and rural footprint.”

PNB is the country’s fifth biggest private commercial bank in terms of assets and deposits as of December 31, 2009. Its distribution network is one of the most extensive, with 324 domestic branches, 402 ATMs, and 108 overseas branches and offices. The bank doubled its net income last year to a record P2.2 billion (USD49 million) from P1.1 billion (USD24 million) in 2008. First quarter 2010 profits were favorable by 22% to P889 million. The bank’s leadership position will be bolstered by its planned merger with Allied Banking Corporation, which will bring a new set of opportunities including revenue and cost synergies, market expansion, and wider domestic and international footprint.

Western Union currently has over 6,800 Agent locations in the Philippines which enable consumers to avail money transfer services from as far north as Basco, Batanes, to as far south as Bongao in Tawi-Tawi.

About Western Union

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a leader in global payment services. Together with its Vigo, Orlandi Valuta, Pago Facil and Custom House branded payment services, Western Union provides consumers and businesses with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send and receive money around the world, as well as send payments and purchase money orders. The Western Union, Vigo and Orlandi Valuta branded services are offered through a combined network of more than 420,000 agent locations in 200 countries and territories. In 2009, The Western Union Company completed 196 million consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, moving $71 billion of principal between consumers, and 415 million business payments. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.

About Philippine National Bank

Philippine National Bank (PNB) is one of the biggest private commercial banks in the Philippines. Its international footprint is the widest among local banks with 108 branches, offices and subsidiaries located in America, Europe, Middle East and the Asia-Pacific, as of May 15, 2010. Earlier this year, PNB received the Financial Insights Innovation Award for Channels Innovation for its pioneering Automated Remittance Machines. PNB was the sole awardee from the Philippines in this annual search for outstanding innovations in the Asia-Pacific region.

Media Contacts

Greenbulb PR

Leah Caringal, managing director
+63 917 8316389
leah.caringal@greenbulbpr.com

Western Union

Connie Yip, senior manager, corporate communications
+852 3405 8002
connie.yip@westernunion.com

Philippine National Bank

Patricia Tan
+63 891-6040 (ext. 4042)
tanpn@pnb.com.ph

Susan Cervantes
+63 526-3534
cervantessr@pnb.com.ph

Jack Lesley asked: Outsourcing: A love / hate relationship for U.S. I.T. professionals. Ask the average employee in any I.T. organization, and hearing about fear of jobs going to India and China is almost unavoidable. Although many have started the move toward business service management (BSM) to address the chaotic labor trends, I.T. labor itself still consumes over one-third of I.T. budgets. This figure is perfectly in line with a recently published Gartner report stating that 37% of the typical I.T. budget goes directly to personnel costs. What are you as the CIO going to do to manage this frenzied situation? Is outsourcing, or “offshoring,” the answer?How can you outsource your operations to a foreign country and still maintain compliance with best practice frameworks such as ITIL or MOF? 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