Q2 2024 The Western Union Co Earnings Call

Good day and welcome to the Western Union second quarter 2024 results conference call.

Unknown Attendee: 2020-24 Results Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note that this event is being recorded.

Operator: 2024 results conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode.

All participants will be in listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tom Hadley, Vice President of Investor Relations. Tom, please go ahead.

Tom Hadley: I would now like to turn the conference over to Tom Hadley, Vice President of Investor Relations.

Operator: After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tom Hadley, Vice President of Investor Relations. Tom, please go ahead.

Tom Hadley: Tom, please go ahead. Thank you. On today's call, we will discuss the company's second quarter 2024 results, and then we will take your questions.

Tom Hadley: Thank you. On today's call, we will discuss the company's second quarter 2024 results, and then we will take your questions. The slides that accompany this call and webcast can be found at westernunion.com under the Investor Relations tab and will remain available after the call. Additional operational statistics have been provided in supplemental tables with our press release. Joining me on the call today are our CEO, Devin McGranahan, and our CFO, Matt Ca

Speaker Change: Thank you. On today's call, we will discuss the company's second quarter 2024 results, and then we will take your questions.

Tom Hadley: The slides that accompany this call and webcast can be found at WesternUnion.com under the Investor Relations tab and will remain available after the call. Additional operational statistics have been provided in supplemental tables with our press release.

Speaker Change: The slides that accompany this call and webcast can be found at WesternUnion.com under the Investor Relations tab and will remain available after the call.

Speaker Change: Additional operational statistics have been provided in supplemental tables with our press release. Joining me on the call today is our CEO Devin McGranahan and our CFO Matt Cagwin.

Tom Hadley: Joining me on the call today is our CEO, Devin McGranahan, and our CFO, Matt Cagwin. Today's call is being recorded, and our comments include forward-looking statements.

Tom Hadley: Today's call is being recorded, and our comments include forward-looking statements. Please refer to the cautionary language in the earnings release and in Western Union's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the 2023 Form 10-K for additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. During the call, we will discuss some items that do not conform to generally accepted accounting principles.

Speaker Change: Today's call is being recorded and our comments include forward looking statements.

Tom Hadley: Please refer to the cautionary language in the early 2020 release and then Western Union's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the 2023 Form 10-K for additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. During the call, we will discuss some items that do not conform to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. We have reconciled those items to the most comparable gap measures in our earnings release, attached to our Form 8-K as well as on our website, WesternUnion.com, under the Investor Relations section.

Speaker Change: Please refer to the cautionary language in the earnings release and in Western Union's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the 2023 Form 10-K , for additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements.

Speaker Change: During the call we will discuss some items that do not conform to generally accepted accounting principles.

Speaker Change: We have reconciled those items to the most comparable GAAP measures in our earnings release Attached to our form 8k as well as on our website WesternUnion.com under the investor relations section

Devin Mcgranahan: I will now turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Devin McGranahan. Good afternoon and welcome to Western Union's second quarter 2024 financial results conference call. Today, we reported another quarter of improving revenue growth as we continue to implement our evolved 2025 strategy focused on returning Western Union to a market competitive position. Over the last two years, we have been driving meaningful improvements in our customer and agent experiences, and this quarter's results demonstrate that our efforts are working. Consumer money, transfer transactions grew at 5% in the quarter, excluding Iraq, a continuation of the mid-single digit trends we have seen for the last four quarters.

Tom Hadley: We have reconciled those items to the most comparable gap measures in our earnings release attached to our Form 8K, as well as on our website, westernunion.com, under the Investor Relations section. I will now turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Devin McGranahan. Good afternoon, and welcome to Western Union's second quarter 2024 financial results conference call. Today, we reported another quarter of improving revenue growth as we continue to implement our Evolve 2025 strategy focused on returning Western Union to a market competitive position.

Speaker Change: I will now turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Devin McGranahan.

Tom Hadley: Over the last two years, we have been driving meaningful improvements in our customer and agent experiences, and this quarter's results demonstrate that our efforts are working. Consumer money transfer transactions grew at 5% in the quarter, excluding Iraq, a continuation of the mid-single-digit trends we have seen for the last four quarters. This continued performance on transaction growth highlights the durability of the improvements we have made. For context, excluding the COVID grow over period.

Devin B. McGranahan: Good afternoon and welcome to Western Union's second quarter 2024 financial results conference call.

Devin B. McGranahan: Today, we reported another quarter of improving revenue growth as we continue to implement our Evolve 2025 strategy focused on returning Western Union to a market competitive position.

Devin B. McGranahan: Over the last two years, we have been driving meaningful improvements in our customer and agent experiences, and this quarter's results demonstrate that our efforts are working.

Devin B. McGranahan: Consumer money transfer transactions grew at 5% in the quarter, excluding Iraq, a continuation of the mid-single-digit trends we have seen for the last four quarters.

Devin Mcgranahan: This continued performance on transaction growth highlights the durability of the improvements we have made. For context, excluding the COVID grow-over period, this is the first time we have seen four consecutive quarters of mid-single-digit transaction growth since 2018. We continue to believe that the consistent and sustainable transaction growth is the best indicator of the future health of our business. In addition to maintaining our transaction momentum, this quarter, we continue to make progress in reducing the spread between transaction growth and revenue growth. As we have previously discussed, closing this gap towards our long-term goal of two to three hundred basis points is a priority.

Devin B. McGranahan: This continued performance on transaction growth highlights the durability of the improvements we have made.

Devin B. McGranahan: For context, excluding the COVID grow-over period, this is the first time we have seen four consecutive quarters of mid-single-digit transaction growth since 2018.

Devin B. McGranahan: This is the first time we have seen four consecutive quarters of mid single-digit transaction growth since 2018. We continue to believe that consistent and sustainable transaction growth is the best indicator of the future health of our business. In addition to maintaining our transaction momentum, this quarter, we continued to make progress in reducing the spread between transaction growth and revenue growth. As we have previously discussed, closing this gap towards our long-term goal of 200 to 300 basis points is a priority.

Devin B. McGranahan: We continue to believe that the consistent and sustainable transaction growth is the best indicator of the future health of our business.

Devin B. McGranahan: In addition to maintaining our transaction momentum, this quarter we continued to make progress in reducing the spread between transaction growth and revenue growth.

Devin B. McGranahan: As we have previously discussed, closing this gap towards our long-term goal of two to three hundred basis points is a priority.

Devin Mcgranahan: For total consumer money transfer, we improved the spread between transaction growth and adjusted revenue growth by approximately 100 basis points compared to the first quarter when excluding Iraq, with our retail business leading the improvement. The highlight of the quarter was achieving positive adjusted revenue growth for the first time since 2021 when excluding Iraq. This milestone gives us confidence that we are well on our way to returning the business to sustainable, profitable revenue growth as we continue to report solid transaction trends in both our retail and our digital businesses, narrowing of the revenue to transaction spread, and now double-digit revenue growth in our consumer services segment.

Devin B. McGranahan: For total consumer money transfer, we improved the spread between transaction growth and adjusted revenue growth by approximately 100 basis points compared to the first quarter when excluding Iraq, with our retail business leading the improvement. The highlight of the quarter was achieving positive adjusted revenue growth for the first time since 2021 when excluding Iraq. This milestone gives us confidence that we are well on our way to returning the business to sustainable, profitable revenue growth as we continue to report solid transaction trends in both our retail and our digital businesses, a narrowing of the revenue to transaction spread, and now double-digit revenue growth in our consumer services segment. For the quarter, our revenue reached $1,070,000,000, reflecting a 7% decrease on an adjusted basis.

Devin B. McGranahan: For total consumer money transfer, we improved the spread between transaction growth and adjusted revenue growth by approximately 100 basis points compared to the first quarter when excluding Iraq, with our retail business leading the improvement.

Devin B. McGranahan: The highlight of the quarter was achieving positive adjusted revenue growth for the first time since 2021 when excluding Iraq.

Devin B. McGranahan: This milestone gives us confidence that we are well on our way to returning the business to sustainable, profitable revenue growth as we continue to report solid transaction trends in both our retail and our digital businesses.

Devin B. McGranahan: Narrowing of the revenue to transaction spread and now double-digit revenue growth in our consumer services segment.

Devin Mcgranahan: For the quarter, our revenue reached $1 billion, $70 million, reflecting a 7% decrease on an adjusted basis. Excluding Iraq, our adjusted revenue growth is positive in the second quarter for the first time since 2021. Earnings per share came in strong at $0.44, or down 7 cents relative to a year ago, which benefited meaningfully from higher revenue and operating profits from Iraq.

Devin B. McGranahan: For the quarter, our revenue reached $1,070,000,000, reflecting a 7% decrease on an adjusted basis.

Devin B. McGranahan: Excluding Iraq, our adjusted revenue growth was positive in the second quarter for the first time since 2021. Earnings per share came in strong at $0.44, or down $0.07 relative to a year ago, which benefited meaningfully from higher revenue and operating profits from Iraq. Matt will discuss our financial results in more detail and provide an update on our 2024 outlook later in this call. Now, switching briefly to the macro.

Devin B. McGranahan: Excluding Iraq, our adjusted revenue growth is positive in the second quarter for the first time since 2021.

Devin B. McGranahan: Earnings per share came in strong at $0.44 or down $0.07 relative to a year ago, which benefited meaningfully from higher revenue and operating profits from Iraq.

Devin Mcgranahan: Matt will discuss our financial results in more detail and provide an update on our 2024 outlook later in this call. Now, switching briefly to the macro, in late June, the World Bank released its semi-annual Migration and Development Brief, which provided a basis for estimating rent and volumes over the next couple of years, and highlighted the fact that Western Union has begun gaining share again in 2023. Previously, we had been losing market share to aggressive competitors in many parts of the world. With the implementation of our evolved 2025 strategy, I am pleased to say we are now a market share gainer again.

Devin B. McGranahan: Matt will discuss our financial results in more detail and provide an update on our 2024 outlook later in this call.

Devin B. McGranahan: In late June, the World Bank released its semi-annual migration and development brief, which provided a basis for estimating remittance volumes over the next couple of years and highlighted the fact that Western Union had begun gaining market share again in 2023. Previously, we'd been losing market share to aggressive competitors in many parts of the world. With the implementation of our Evolve 2025 strategy, I am pleased to say we are now a market share gainer again.

Speaker Change: Now, switching briefly to the macro. In late June , the World Bank released its semi-annual Migration and Development Brief, which provided a basis for estimating remittance volumes over the next couple of years.

Speaker Change: and highlighted the fact that Western Union has begun gaining share again in 2023.

Speaker Change: Previously, we'd been losing market share to aggressive competitors in many parts of the world. With the implementation of our Evolve 2025 strategy, I am pleased to say we are now a market share gainer again.

Devin Mcgranahan: Considering our market share is in the low teens, we believe we still have significant room to continue to grow. The World Bank's current economic outlook is for north of 3% principal growth for both this year and next year, and with our recent share gain performance, we believe we can continue to see principal growth of mid-single digits or better for Western Union excluding Iraq. Additionally, and contrary to the general market sentiment, the World Bank data would indicate pricing increased on an aggregate basis year over year. Even with increased growth in digital money transfer services, the global average cost to send remittances increased.

Devin B. McGranahan: Considering our market share is in the low teens, we believe we still have significant room to continue to grow. The World Bank's current economic outlook is for north of 3% principal growth for both this year and next year.

Speaker Change: Considering our market share is in the low teens, we believe we still have significant room to continue to grow.

Speaker Change: The World Bank's Current Economic Outlook

Speaker Change: is for north of 3% principal growth for both this year and next year. And with our recent share gain performance, we believe we can continue to see principal growth of mid-single digits or better for Western Union, excluding Iraq.

Devin B. McGranahan: And with our recent share gain performance, we believe we can continue to see principal growth of mid-single digits or better for Western Union, excluding Iraq. Additionally, and contrary to the general market sentiment, the World Bank data would indicate pricing increased on an aggregate basis year over year. Even with increased growth in digital money transfer services, the global average cost to send remittances increased.

Speaker Change: Additionally, and contrary to the general market sentiment, the World Bank data would indicate pricing increased on an aggregate basis year over year.

Speaker Change: Even with increased growth in digital money transfer services, the global average cost to send remittances increased.

Devin Mcgranahan: This is supportive of our belief that higher interest rates are forcing more rational competition and driving out marginal players who may have been making uneconomic business decisions. So far this year, we have seen multiple players exit the remittance space. We have also seen others raise prices as they strive for greater profitability and have seen several sub-scale players seek M&A opportunities in furtherance of increased scale and competitiveness. As a point of reference, in the second quarter, we saw a net new independent agent activations in the US, up nearly 50% year over year, and as the year progresses, we expect to see a similar dynamic in other parts of the world as smaller scale players are being forced to improve profitability or exit the market entirely.

Devin B. McGranahan: This is supportive of our belief that higher interest rates are forcing more rational competition and driving out marginal players who may have been making uneconomic business decisions. So far this year, we have seen multiple players exit the remittance space. We have also seen others raise prices as they strive for greater profitability, and we have seen several subscale players seek M&A opportunities in furtherance of increased scale and competitiveness. As a point of reference, in the second quarter, we saw net new independent agent activations in the U.S. up nearly 50% year-over-year, and as the year progresses, we expect to see a similar dynamic in other parts of the world as smaller-scale players are being forced to improve profitability or exit the market entirely.

Speaker Change: This is supportive of our belief that higher interest rates are forcing more rational competition and driving out marginal players who may have been making uneconomic business decisions.

Speaker Change: So far this year, we have seen multiple players exit the remittance space.

Speaker Change: We have also seen others raise prices as they strive for greater profitability and have seen several subscale players seek M&A opportunities in furtherance of increased scale and competitiveness.

Speaker Change: As a point of reference, in the second quarter, we saw net new independent agent activations in the U.S.

Speaker Change: Up nearly 50% year over year, and as the year progresses, we expect to see a similar dynamic in other parts of the world as smaller scale players are being forced to improve profitability or exit the market entirely.

Devin Mcgranahan: In addition, banks still hold a substantial share of the global market and continue to provide the pricing umbrella under which all MTOs compete. With the World Bank estimating that the average cost to send a remittance through bank channels globally is roughly 12%. Additionally, banks can take multiple days or more to complete a transaction, while Western Union provides near real-time payouts to over 100 countries across the world. Over the last two years, we have made significant progress on improving our retail operations, updating our digital platforms, elevating our customer and agent experiences, and enhancing our overall value proposition in the marketplace.

Devin B. McGranahan: In addition, banks still hold a substantial share of the global market and continue to provide the pricing umbrella under which all MTOs compete, with the World Bank estimating that the average cost to send a remittance through bank channels globally is roughly 12%. Additionally, banks can take multiple days or more to complete a transaction, while Western Union provides near real-time payouts to over 100 countries across the world.

Speaker Change: In addition, banks still hold a substantial share of the global market and continue to provide the pricing umbrella under which all MTOs compete.

Speaker Change: with the World Bank estimating that the average cost to send a remittance through bank channels globally is roughly 12%.

Western Union: Additionally, banks can take multiple days or more to complete a transaction, while Western Union provides near real-time payouts to over 100 countries across the world.

Devin B. McGranahan: Over the last two years, we have made significant progress on improving our retail operations, updating our digital platforms, elevating our customer and agent experiences, and enhancing our overall value proposition in the marketplace. This focus is leading to the improving revenue growth we reported today, and while we have made substantial progress, we do believe there are still meaningful opportunities to continue to improve. As we discussed at our 2022 Investor Day, returning our digital business to double-digit growth is a key priority of the organization and is essential to driving top-line revenue growth for the overall company.

Speaker Change: Over the last two years, we have made significant progress on improving our retail operations, updating our digital platforms, elevating our customer and agent experiences, and enhancing our overall value proposition in the marketplace.

Devin Mcgranahan: This focus is leading to the improving revenue growth we reported today, and while we have made substantial progress, we do believe there is still meaningful opportunities to continue to improve. As we discussed at our 2022 Investor Day, returning our digital business to double-digit growth is a key priority of the organization and is essential to driving top-line revenue growth for the overall company. Over the past year, we have been improving the effectiveness of our marketing by cost-effectively increasing top-of-funnel traffic in our digital properties around the globe. These changes have begun to take hold, and as an example, in the final month of the quarter, we saw visits to our U.S.

Speaker Change: This focus is leading to the improving revenue growth we reported today, and while we have made substantial progress, we do believe there is still meaningful opportunities to continue to improve.

Speaker Change: As we discussed at our 2022 Investor Day, returning our digital business to double-digit growth is a key priority of the organization and is essential to driving top-line revenue growth for the overall company.

Devin B. McGranahan: Over the past year, we have been improving the effectiveness of our marketing by cost-effectively increasing top-of-funnel traffic on our digital properties around the globe. These changes have begun to take hold, and as an example, in the final month of the quarter, we saw visits to our U.S. sites up 20% year-over-year. In addition to driving traffic at the top of the funnel, we've also made meaningful progress in simplifying the customer journey and improving our funnel conversion rate. As part of that process, we have simplified the branded digital customer profile creation.

Speaker Change: Over the past year, we have been improving the effectiveness of our marketing by cost-effectively increasing top-of-funnel traffic in our digital properties around the globe.

Speaker Change: These changes have begun to take hold, and as an example, in the final month of the quarter, we saw visits to our U.S. sites up 20 percent year over year.

Devin Mcgranahan: sites up 20% year-over-year. In addition to driving traffic at the top of the funnel, we have also made meaningful progress in simplifying the customer journey and improving our funnel conversion rates. As part of that process, we have simplified the branded digital customer profile creation. We have reduced the steps required for a customer to complete a transaction and have modernized our user interface and moved from a multi-page transaction funnel to a single-page modular view. These improvements have led to a 13% increase in conversion rates and have contributed to the double-digit transaction growth that we achieved in the second quarter, even in the face of a much harder comparison as we lapped our double-digit transaction growth in this quarter last year.

Speaker Change: In addition to driving traffic at the top of the funnel, we have also made meaningful progress in simplifying the journey, customer journey, and improving our funnel conversion rates.

Speaker Change: As part of that process, we have simplified the branded digital customer profile creation

Devin B. McGranahan: We have reduced the steps required for a customer to complete a transaction and have modernized our user interface and moved from a multi-page transaction funnel to a single-page modular view. These improvements led to a 13% increase in conversion rates and have contributed to the double-digit transaction growth that we achieved in the second quarter, even in the face of a much harder comparison as we lagged our double-digit transaction growth in this quarter last year.

Speaker Change: We have reduced the steps required for a customer to complete a transaction and have modernized our user interface and moved from a multi-page transaction funnel to a single-page modular view.

Speaker Change: These improvements have led to a 13% increase in conversion rates and have contributed to the double-digit transaction growth that we achieved in the second quarter.

Speaker Change: Even in the face of a much harder comparison as we lapped our double digit transaction growth in this quarter last year.

Devin Mcgranahan: In addition to the improvements in traffic and conversion, we have also begun using machine learning algorithms to test our marketing messages, page layouts, and landing pages. These algorithms run multi-variant testing in real-time and steer traffic to those variants with the highest degree of success, which had helped drive continued improvements in coming quarters. At the start of our efforts, there was some concern that we would only acquire price-sensitive bonus or offer seekers and thus dilute the quality of our existing customer acquisition efforts. I am very pleased to report that concern has not materialized. If we look at cohort level transactions per customer, we continue to see steady improvements in performance.

Devin B. McGranahan: In addition to the improvements in traffic and conversion, we have also begun using machine learning algorithms to test our marketing messages, page layouts, and landing pages. These algorithms run multivariant testing in real time and steer traffic to those variants with the highest degree of success, which should help drive continued improvements in the coming quarters. At the start of our efforts, there was some concern that we would only acquire price-sensitive bonus or offer seekers and thus dilute the quality of our existing customer acquisition efforts. I am very pleased to report that this concern has not materialized.

Speaker Change: In addition to the improvements in traffic and conversion, we have also begun using machine learning algorithms to test our marketing messages, page layouts, and landing pages.

Speaker Change: These algorithms run multivariant testing in real time and steer traffic to those variants with the highest degree of success, which should help drive continued improvements in coming quarters.

Speaker Change: At the start of our efforts, there was some concern that we would only acquire price-sensitive bonus or offer seekers and thus dilute the quality of our existing customer acquisition efforts.

Speaker Change: I am very pleased to report that concern has not materialized.

Devin B. McGranahan: If we look at cohort-level transactions per customer, we continue to see steady improvements in performance with 2024 cohorts performing meaningfully better than 2023, and the 2023 cohorts performing meaningfully better than 2022. The charts on the screen represent three and six months of transactions per customer post acquisition. We chose these specific charts to allow you to see the performance of our most recently acquired cohorts, but the 12-month charts show a very similar performance trend.

Speaker Change: If we look at cohort level transactions per customer, we continue to see steady improvements in performance with 2024 cohorts.

Devin Mcgranahan: With 2024 cohorts, performing meaningfully better in 2023, and the 2023 cohorts, performing meaningfully better in 2022. The charts on the screen represent three and six month transactions per customer post acquisition. We chose the specific charts to allow you to see the performance of our most recently acquired cohorts, but the 12-month charts show a very similar performance trend. As I have discussed before, Australia has been at the center of our efforts to turn around our digital business. This is a market that is highly digitized. And where we first launched our new next generation digital app, roughly two years ago.

Speaker Change: performing meaningfully better than 2023 and the 2023 cohorts performing meaningfully better than 2022.

Speaker Change: The charts on the screen represent three and six-month transactions per customer post-acquisition.

Speaker Change: We chose these specific charts to allow you to see the performance of our most recently acquired cohorts, but the 12-month charts show a very similar performance trend.

Devin B. McGranahan: As I have discussed before, Australia has been at the center of our efforts to turn around our digital business. This is a market that is highly digitalized and where we first launched our new next-generation digital app roughly two years ago. At the time of the launch, we were shrinking transactions at 5%, and revenue was declining in the high single digits. Since the launch of our new platform, we have continued to iterate from a technological standpoint with the goal of creating a best-in-class user experience, and I feel we are well on our way. Australia now has a 20 percentage point higher conversion rate than any other country in our APAC region, and it has some of the highest LTV to CAC ratios we see anywhere among our significant digital countries.

Speaker Change: As I have discussed before, Australia has been at the center of our efforts to turn around our digital business.

Speaker Change: This is a market that is highly digitized and where we first launched our new next generation digital app roughly two years ago. At the time of the launch, we were shrinking transactions at 5% and revenue was declining in the high single digits.

Devin Mcgranahan: At the time of the launch, we were shrinking transactions at 5%, and revenue was declining in the high single digits. Since the launch of our new platform, we have continued to iterate from a technological standpoint, with the goal of creating a best in class user experience, and I feel we are well on our way. Australia now has a 20 percentage point higher conversion than any other country in our APAC region. And it has some of the highest LTV to CAC ratios. We see anywhere among our significant digital countries. In the most recent quarter, Australia digital transactions grew at 30% with 14% revenue growth.

Speaker Change: Since the launch of our new platform, we have continued to iterate from a technological standpoint with the goal of creating a best-in-class user experience and I feel we are well on our way.

Speaker Change: Australia now has a 20 percentage point higher conversion than any other country in our APAC region and it has some of the highest LTV to CAC ratios we see anywhere among our significant digital countries.

Devin B. McGranahan: In the most recent quarter, Australia digital transactions grew at 30% with 14% revenue growth, and we expect that spread to continue to close in the back half of the year as we anniversary some of the pricing initiatives we launched with our new go-to-market strategy in Australia in mid-2023. All of these changes have enabled us to achieve 12 plus percent branded digital transaction growth for five quarters in a row. And I believe that they are durable and sustainable improvements.

Speaker Change: In the most recent quarter, Australia digital transactions grew at 30 percent.

Devin Mcgranahan: And we expect that spread to continue to close in the back half of the year. As we anniversary some of the pricing initiatives we launched with our new go to market strategy in Australia in mid 2023. All of these changes have enabled us to achieve the 12-plus percent branded digital transaction growth for five quarters in a row. And I believe that they are durable and sustainable improvements.

Speaker Change: with 14% revenue growth. And we expect that spread to continue to close in the back half of the year, as we anniversary some of the pricing initiatives we launched with our new go-to-market strategy in Australia in mid 2023.

Speaker Change: All of these changes have enabled us to achieve the 12 plus percent branded digital transaction growth for five quarters in a row and I believe that they are durable and sustainable improvements.

Devin Mcgranahan: The good news is that as we continue to move forward, we believe we still have significant opportunity in many parts of the world for further improvements across our marketing effectiveness, funnel conversion, and customer attention.

Devin B. McGranahan: The good news is that as we continue to move forward, we believe we still have significant opportunities in many parts of the world for further improvements across our marketing effectiveness, funnel conversion, and customer retention. Now on to retail. Last year, we introduced several point of sale improvements, including Remember Me, Quick Resend, and One Step Refund, to improve our customer and agent experiences. However, we had received feedback that our transactions took too long and required too much repeated information from our customers relative to our competitors.

Speaker Change: The good news is that as we continue to move forward, we believe we still have significant opportunity in many parts of the world for further improvements across our marketing effectiveness, funnel conversion, and customer retention.

Devin Mcgranahan: Now on to retail. Last year we introduced several point of sale improvements, including remember me, quick resend, and one step refund to improve our customer and agent experiences. We had received feedback that our transactions took too long and required too much repeat information from our customers relative to our competitors. I am happy to report that in the second quarter, we processed almost 3 million transactions using Quick Resend, which is up roughly 70 percent sequentially compared to the first quarter. We continue to expand the rollout of Quick Resend to allow our customers and our agents and other regions of the world to experience the speed and convenience that we have now had available in North America for a little over a year.

Speaker Change: Now on to retail. Last year we introduced several point-of-sale improvements including Remember Me, Quick Resend, and One Step Refund to improve our customer and agent experiences.

Speaker Change: We had received feedback that our transactions took too long and required too much repeat information from our customers relative to our competitors.

Devin B. McGranahan: I am happy to report that in the second quarter, we processed almost three million transactions using Quick Resend, which is up roughly 70% sequentially compared to the first quarter. We continue to expand the rollout of Quick Resend to allow our customers and our agents in other regions of the world to experience the speed and convenience that we have now had available in North America for a little over a year. In addition to quick resend, we have been expanding our payment methods at the retail point of sale. Specifically, we have added debit card acceptance, which we have been rolling out across Europe over the last year, with a planned launch in the U.S. in the third quarter of this year.

Speaker Change: I am happy to report that in the second quarter, we processed almost 3 million transactions using Quick Resend, which is up roughly 70% sequentially compared to the first quarter.

Speaker Change: We continue to expand the rollout of Quick Resend to allow our customers and our agents in other regions of the world to experience the speed and convenience that we have now had available in North America for a little over a year.

Devin Mcgranahan: In addition to Quick Resend, we have been expanding our pay-in methods at the retail point of sale. Specifically, we have added debit card acceptance, which we have been rolling out across Europe over the last year, with now a planned launch in the US in the third quarter of this year. We are also expanding and driving efficiencies in our account-pout network across the globe, which is being used more and more in our retail setting. Retail-initiated paid out to account transactions have accelerated significantly, and in the second quarter grew at over 30 percent year over year. Our goal with our account-pout network is to provide speed, reliability, transparency, and lower cost options for our customers.

Speaker Change: In addition to Quick Resend, we have been expanding our pay-in methods at the retail point of sale.

Speaker Change: Specifically, we have added debit card acceptance, which we have been rolling out across Europe over the last year, with now a planned launch in the U.S. in the third quarter of this year.

Devin B. McGranahan: We are also expanding and driving efficiencies in our account payout network across the globe, which is being used more and more in our retail setting. Retail initiated, paid out to account transactions have accelerated significantly, and in the second quarter grew at over 30% year over year. Our goal with our account payout network is to provide speed, reliability, transparency, and lower cost options for our customers. In a relatively significant strategic shift, we have now become more focused on end-to-end customer experience instead of absolute endpoint growth across our payout network. To achieve this goal, we are increasing the number of direct connections we have with banks, wallets, and real-time payout networks instead of relying on aggregators.

Speaker Change: We are also expanding and driving efficiencies in our account payout network across the globe, which is being used more and more in our retail setting.

Speaker Change: Retail-initiated, paid-out-to-account transactions have accelerated significantly and in the second quarter grew at over 30% year-over-year.

Speaker Change: Our goal with our account payout network is to provide speed, reliability, transparency, and lower cost options for our customers.

Devin Mcgranahan: In a relatively significant strategic shift, we have now become more focused on end-to-end customer experience instead of absolute endpoint growth across our pay-out network. To achieve this goal, we are increasing the number of direct connections we have with banks, wallets, and real-time pay-out networks instead of relying on aggregators. A great example is our recent enablement of our own Western Union International Bank to SEPA in Europe, which will result in increased speed, transparency, and we believe close to a half a million dollars of cost savings annually versus our prior approach through an aggregator. Our goal is to meet our customers' needs by building the broadest array of funding and pay-out options, regardless of channel.

Speaker Change: in a relatively significant strategic shift.

Speaker Change: We have now become more focused on end-to-end customer experience instead of absolute endpoint growth across our payout network.

Speaker Change: To achieve this goal, we are increasing the number of direct connections we have with banks, wallets, and real-time payout networks, instead of relying on aggregators.

Devin B. McGranahan: A great example is our recent enablement of our own Western Union International Bank to CEPA in Europe, which will result in increased speed, transparency, and we believe close to a half a million dollars of cost savings annually versus our prior approach through an aggregator. Our goal is to meet our customers' needs by building the broadest array of funding and payout options, regardless of channel. Lastly, I would like to take a minute to discuss our consumer services segment.

Speaker Change: A great example is our recent enablement of our own Western Union International Bank to CEPA in Europe .

Speaker Change: which will result in increased speed.

Speaker Change: Transparency, and we believe close to a half a million dollars of cost savings annually versus our prior approach through an aggregator.

Speaker Change: Our goal is to meet our customers' needs by building the broadest array of funding and payout options, regardless of channel.

Devin Mcgranahan: Lastly, I would like to take a minute to discuss our consumer services segment. In previous calls, we have talked about how retail money order and bill payments have been the largest two businesses within consumer services and the biggest drivers of growth over the last couple of years. We have also now made it a goal to grow this segment of our business double digits annually, and after a slower start to the year, I am pleased to report we generated 14 percent adjusted revenue growth in the second quarter. While we do expect retail money order and bill payments to grow, we believe much of the future incremental growth within consumer services will come from products and services we have recently launched or expanded in the last 18 months.

Speaker Change: Lastly, I would like to take a minute to discuss our consumer services segment.

Devin B. McGranahan: In previous calls, we have talked about how retail money orders and bill payments have been the largest two businesses within consumer services and the biggest drivers of growth over the last couple of years. We have also now made it a goal to grow this segment of our business by double digits annually. And after a slower start to the year, I am pleased to report we generated 14% adjusted revenue growth in the second quarter.

Speaker Change: In previous calls, we have talked about how retail money order and bill payments have been the largest two businesses within consumer services and the biggest drivers of growth over the last couple of years.

Speaker Change: We have also now made it a goal to grow this segment of our business double digits annually. And after a slower start to the year, I am pleased to report we generated 14% adjusted revenue growth in the second quarter.

Devin B. McGranahan: While we do expect retail money order and bill payments to grow, we believe much of the future incremental growth within consumer services will come from products and services we have recently launched or expanded in the last 18 months, services like prepaid debit cards, foreign exchange, media networks, and the ancillary revenue streams associated with our digital wallet. In the quarter, we continue to see solid growth in retail money orders, and our Forex business in Europe is benefiting from a robust travel season.

Speaker Change: While we do expect retail money order and bill payments to grow, we believe much of the future incremental growth within consumer services will come from products and services we have recently launched or expanded in the last 18 months.

Devin Mcgranahan: Services like prepaid debit cards for an exchange, media networks, and the ancillary revenue streams associated with our digital wallet.

Speaker Change: Services like prepaid debit cards, foreign exchange, media networks, and the ancillary revenue streams associated with our digital wallets.

Devin Mcgranahan: Awards. In the quarter, we continued to see solid growth in retail money order and our Forex business in Europe is benefiting from a robust travel season. As we expand our control distribution strategy of owned and concept stores, we will add additional products and services to our traditional cross-border money transfer offering. These services not only add convenience and accessibility for our customers, but also improve the economics of our retail footprint. We currently offer bill payments or retail forex in nearly a dozen countries around the world. And we expect to continue to expand that list in the coming years.

Speaker Change: In the quarter, we continue to see solid growth in retail money order, and our Forex business in Europe is benefiting from a robust travel season.

Devin B. McGranahan: As we expand our controlled distribution strategy of owned and concept stores, we will add additional products and services to our traditional cross-border money transfer offering. These services not only add convenience and accessibility for our customers but also improve the economics of our retail footprint. We currently offer bill payments or retail forex in nearly a dozen countries around the world, and we expect to continue to expand that list in the coming years.

Speaker Change: As we expand our controlled distribution strategy of owned and concept stores.

Speaker Change: We will add additional products and services to our traditional cross-border money transfer offering. These services not only add convenience and accessibility for our customers, but also improve the economics of our retail footprint.

Speaker Change: We currently offer bill payments or retail forex in nearly a dozen countries around the world.

Speaker Change: And we expect to continue to expand that list in the coming years.

Devin Mcgranahan: As we look to fulfill our mission of providing accessible financial services to the aspiring populations of the world, we will continue to look for ways to provide our customers with access to the financial products and services they need for their lives. Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about our market opportunities and the progress we are making on delivering our strategic initiatives. We are pleased with the underlying trajectory of our business, driven by improved transaction trends across both our digital and our retail businesses, and we expect to continue improving top line revenue as a result. I remain confident that we have the right strategy, the right capabilities, the right team, and the right mindset to achieve our evolved 2025 goals.

Devin B. McGranahan: As we look to fulfill our mission of providing accessible financial services to the aspiring populations of the world, we will continue to look for ways to provide our customers with access to the financial products and services they need for their lives. Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about our market opportunities and the progress we are making on delivering our strategic initiatives. We are pleased with the underlying trajectory of our business, driven by improved transaction trends across both our digital and our retail businesses, and we expect to continue improving top-line revenue as a result.

Speaker Change: As we look to fulfill our mission of providing accessible financial services to the aspiring populations of the world, we will continue to look for ways to provide our customers with access to the financial products and services they need for their lives.

Speaker Change: Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about our market opportunities and the progress we are making on delivering our strategic initiatives. We are pleased with the underlying trajectory of our business, driven by improved transaction trends across both

Speaker Change: Our digital and our retail businesses, and we expect to continue improving top-line revenue as a result.

Devin B. McGranahan: I remain confident that we have the right strategy, the right capabilities, the right team, and the right mindset to achieve our Evolve 2025 goals. Thank you for joining the call today. I will now turn the call over to Matt to discuss our financial results in more detail. Thank you, Devin. And good afternoon, everyone.

Speaker Change: I remain confident that we have the right strategy, the right capabilities, the right team, and the right mindset to achieve our Evolve 2025 goals.

Devin Mcgranahan: Thank you for joining the call today.

Matthew Cagwin: I will now turn the call over to Matt to discuss our financial results in more detail. Thank you, Devon, and good afternoon, everyone. I look forward to sharing a bit more on our 2024 second quarter results and our financial outlook. Adjusted revenue was $1 billion, $73 million, which was down 7% due to the Iraq Grover. As we indicated in the past year, Iraq's revenue has been lumpy and uncertain. In the second quarter of 2023, we earned $118 million in revenue from Iraq versus $34 million in the second quarter of this year. This decline negatively affected adjusted revenue by 7 percentage points, where excluding Iraq from both periods, adjusted revenue would have been slightly positive for the first time since 2021.

Speaker Change: Thank you for joining the call today. I will now turn the call over to Matt to discuss our financial results in more detail.

Matthew Cagwin: I look forward to sharing a bit more on our 2024 second quarter results and our financial outlook. Adjusted revenue was $1,073,000,000, which was down 7% due to the Iraq Grover. As we indicated in the past year, Iraq's revenue has been lumpy and uncertain. In the second quarter of 2023, we earned $118 million in revenue from Iraq, versus $34 million in the second quarter of this year. This decline negatively affected adjusted revenue by seven percentage points.

Matthew Cagwin: Thank you, Devin. And good afternoon, everyone. I look forward to sharing a bit more on our 2024 second quarter results and our financial outlook.

Matthew Cagwin: Adjusted revenue was $1,073,000,000, which was down 7% due to the Iraq Grover.

Matthew Cagwin: As we indicated in the past year, Iraq's revenue has been lumpy and uncertain. In the second quarter of 2023, we earned $118 million in revenue from Iraq.

Matthew Cagwin: vs. $34 million in the second quarter of this year.

Matthew Cagwin: This decline negatively affected Adjusted Revenue by 7 percentage points, whereas excluding Iraq from both periods, Adjusted Revenue would have been slightly positive for the first time since 2021.

Matthew Cagwin: Whereas excluding Iraq from both periods, adjusted revenue would have been slightly positive for the first time since 2021, which is several quarters earlier than we anticipated when we launched our Evolve 2025 strategy. We are pleased with the steady progress in adjusted revenue ex-IRAC, improving 500 basis points over the past year. Adjusted operating margins were 19% compared to 21.8% last year, with the decrease primarily related to elevated Iraqi revenues last year and foreign exchange volatility in the current period.

Matthew Cagwin: Which is several quarters earlier than we anticipated when we launched our evolved 2025 strategy. We are pleased with the steady progress in adjusted revenue XIRAC, improving 500 basis points over the past year. Adjusted operating margins was 19% compared to 21.8% last year, with the decrease primarily related to elevated Iraq revenues last year and foreign exchange volatility in the current period. Adjusted EPS was $0.44 versus 51 cents last year, with the prior period benefiting from higher Iraq revenues offset by lower share count in the current period. Now turning to our CMT business, Consumer Money Transfer Transactions grew 4% in the quarter, and 5% excluding Iraq, led by continued momentum in our branded digital business, growth in our digital white label business, and continued stabilization of our retail business.

Matthew Cagwin: which is several quarters earlier than we anticipated when we launched our Evolve 2025 strategy.

Matthew Cagwin: We are pleased with the steady progress in adjusted revenue ex-IRAC, improving 500 basis points over the past year.

Matthew Cagwin: Adjusted operating margins was 19% compared to 21.8% last year, with the decrease primarily related to elevated Iraq revenues last year and foreign exchange volatility in the current period.

Matthew Cagwin: Adjusted EPS was $0.44 versus $0.51 last year, with the prior period benefiting from higher IRAC revenues offset by a lower share count in the current period. Now turning to our CMT business, consumer money transfer transactions grew 4% in the quarter and 5% excluding Iraq, led by continued momentum in our branded digital business, growth in our digital white label business, and continued stabilization of our retail business. Branded digital adjusted revenue was up 7% in the second quarter, with transaction growth of 13%.

Matthew Cagwin: Adjusted EPS was $0.44 versus $0.51 last year, with the prior period benefiting from higher IRAC revenues, offset by lower share count in the current period.

Matthew Cagwin: Now, turning to our CMT business, consumer money transfer transactions grew 4% in the quarter and 5% excluding Iraq, led by continued momentum in our branded digital business.

Matthew Cagwin: growth in our digital white label business and continued stabilization of our retail business.

Matthew Cagwin: Branded digital adjusted revenue was up 7% in the second quarter, with transaction growth of 13%. We are pleased to have carried over the positive momentum from the first quarter with another quarter of solid revenue growth and double-digit transaction growth. We have now sustained double-digit transaction growth for 5 consecutive quarters, even against tough comparisons. As we suggested last quarter, the spread between transaction growth and revenue growth rates increased slightly in the second quarter. This was largely driven by the counter shift in holidays, and we believe the spread will continue to narrow going forward. Now turning to our regional view, we are pleased to see the revenue improvements in 3 of our 5 regions, quarter over quarter, despite harder comparisons versus the first quarter, which benefited from a holiday shift and leap year.

Matthew Cagwin: Branded Digital Adjusted Revenue was up 7% in the second quarter, with transaction growth of 13%.

Matthew Cagwin: We are pleased to have carried over the positive momentum from the first quarter with another quarter of solid revenue growth and double-digit transaction growth. We have now sustained double-digit transaction growth for five consecutive quarters, even against tough for comparison. As we suggested last quarter, the spread between transaction growth and revenue growth rates increased slightly in the second quarter.

Matthew Cagwin: We are pleased to have carried over the positive momentum from the first quarter with another quarter of solid revenue growth and double-digit transaction growth.

Matthew Cagwin: We have now sustained double-digit transaction growth for five consecutive quarters, even against tougher comparisons.

Matthew Cagwin: As we suggested last quarter, the spread between transaction growth and revenue growth rates increased slightly in the second quarter. This was largely driven by the calendar shift and holidays, and we believe the spread will continue to narrow going forward.

Matthew Cagwin: This was largely driven by the counter shift and holidays, and we believe the spread will continue to narrow going forward. Now turning to our regional view, we are pleased to see revenue improvements in three of our five regions, quarter over quarter, despite harder comparisons versus the first quarter, which benefited from a holiday shift and leap year. North America revenue growth was down slightly relative to the first quarter, but it grew on an absolute basis. And the Middle East was obviously facing a difficult comparison with the year-ago period benefiting from much higher Iraqi contributions.

Matthew Cagwin: Now turning to our regional view, we are pleased to see the revenue improvements in three of our five regions, quarter over quarter, despite harder comparisons versus the first quarter, which benefited from a holiday shift and leap year.

Matthew Cagwin: North America revenue growth rate was down slightly relative to the first quarter, but grew on an absolute basis, and the Middle East was obviously facing a difficult comparison with the year-ago period benefiting from much higher Iraq contributions. We continue to make progress across the organization and are seeing positive revenue trends globally as we continue to focus on driving growth in 2025 and beyond. In the short term, we still have a couple of headwinds from some of the pricing initiatives we launched last year, given the outperformance of our Iraq business, and the loss of counter service at one of our large agent partners in Europe.

Matthew Cagwin: North America revenue growth rate was down slightly relative to the first quarter, but grew on an absolute basis. And the Middle East was obviously facing a difficult comparison with the year ago period benefiting from much higher Iraq contributions.

Matthew Cagwin: We continue to make progress across the organization and are seeing positive revenue trends globally as we continue to focus on driving growth in 2025 and beyond. In the short term, we still have a couple of headwinds from some of the pricing initiatives we launched last year, given the outperformance of our Iraq business and the loss of counter service at one of our large agent partners in Europe. As we anniversary these items in the back half of the year, we feel very good about closing the gap between transaction growth and our revenue growth rates, and we expect by the end of the year to be much closer to our immediate term goal.

Matthew Cagwin: We continue to make progress across the organization and are seeing positive revenue trends globally as we continue to focus on driving growth in 2025 and beyond.

Matthew Cagwin: In the short term, we still have a couple of headwinds from some of the pricing initiatives we launched last year, given the outperformance of our Iraq business and the loss of counter service at one of our large agent partners in Europe .

Matthew Cagwin: As we anniversary these items in the back half of the year, we feel very good about closing the gap between transaction growth and our revenue growth rates, and we expect by the end of the year to be much closer to our immediate term goal. Moving to our retail business, as Devon mentioned earlier, we maintain stable transaction trends for the fourth consecutive quarter as we continue to employ operational improvements around the world, optimize our network, and improve our value proposition in the marketplace. From a revenue point of view, we are making progress as well, with the second quarter adjusted revenue, excluding our rack, growth rate improving 100 basis points versus the first quarter.

Matthew Cagwin: As we anniversary these items in the back half the year, we feel very good about closing the gap between transaction growth and our revenue growth rates, and we expect by the end of the year to be much closer to our immediate term goal.

Matthew Cagwin: Moving to our retail business, as Devin mentioned earlier, we maintained stable transaction trends for the fourth consecutive quarter as we continue to deploy operational improvements around the world, optimize our network, and improve our value proposition in the marketplace. From a revenue point of view, we are making progress as well, with the second quarter adjusted revenue, excluding our RAC, growth rate improving 100 basis points versus the first quarter. Europe and CIS led the improvement in retail transaction trends in the second quarter, with transactions growing 3%.

Matthew Cagwin: Moving to our retail business, as Devin mentioned earlier, we maintain stable transaction trends for the fourth consecutive quarter as we continue to deploy operational improvements around the world, optimize our network, and improve our value proposition in the marketplace.

Speaker Change: From a revenue point of view, we are making progress as well. With the second quarter adjusted revenue, excluding our RAC, growth rate improving 100 basis points versus the first quarter.

Matthew Cagwin: Europe and CIS led the improvement in retail transaction trends in the second quarter, with transactions growing 3%. We are seeing strength across the number of markets, led by Spain, which was fueled by strong transactions in Western Union's owned and concept stores.

Devin B. McGranahan: Europe and CIS led the improvement in retail transaction trends in the second quarter with transactions growing 3%.

Matthew Cagwin: We are seeing strength across a number of markets, led by Spain, which was fueled by strong transactions in Western Union's owned and concept stores. Now transitioning to our consumer services segment, which represents 10% of our company's revenue in the quarter. As a reminder, consumer services is mostly comprised of bill payment, revenue in the United States and Argentina, and retail money order in the U.S.

Speaker Change: We are seeing strength across a number of markets led by Spain, which was fueled by strong transactions in Western Union's owned and concept stores.

Matthew Cagwin: Now transitioning to our consumer services segment, which represents 10 percent of our company's revenue in the quarter, is a reminder; consumer services is mostly comprised of bill payment revenue in the United States and Argentina, and retail money order in the U.S. Business. Adjusted revenue in the second quarter was up 14%, benefiting from the expansion of our retail, foreign exchange business, our new media network business, as well as continued growth in our retail money-water business. We believe double-digit growth is sustainable going forward, which is forecasted to come in from our new and expanded projects, products, such as our wallet, prepaid cards, lending partnerships, foreign exchange, and our media network business.

Speaker Change: Now transitioning to our consumer services segment, which represents 10% of our company's revenue in the quarter. As a reminder, consumer services is mostly comprised of bill payment, revenue in the United States and Argentina, and retail money order in the U.S.

Matthew Cagwin: Adjusted revenue in the second quarter was up 14%, benefiting from the expansion of our retail foreign exchange business, our new media network business, as well as continued growth in our retail money order business. We believe double-digit growth is sustainable going forward, which is forecasted to come from our new and expanded products, such as our wallet, prepaid cards, lending partnerships, foreign exchange, and our media network business. In the second quarter, Consumer Services Segment Margins were lower sequentially, which is a result of us investing in new products and services for our customers.

Speaker Change: Adjusted revenue in the second quarter was up 14%, benefiting from the expansion of our retail foreign exchange business, our new media network business, as well as continued growth in our retail money order business.

Speaker Change: We believe double-digit growth is sustainable going forward, which is forecasted to come in from our new and expanded products, such as our wallet, prepaid cards, lending partnerships, foreign exchange, and our media network business.

Matthew Cagwin: In the second quarter, consumer services segment margins was lower sequentially, which is a result of us investing in our new products and services for our customers. As these products gain scale, we expect margins to improve and to be at or better than the company average margins.

Speaker Change: In the second quarter, Consumer Services Segment Margins

Speaker Change: was lower sequentially, which is a result of us investing in our new products and services for our customers. As these products gain scale, we expect margins to improve and to be at or better than the company average margins.

Matthew Cagwin: As these products gain scale, we expect margins to improve and to be at or better than the company average margin. Now, switching to our expense redeployment program, we continue to make progress on our five-year, $150 million program, which we announced during our Investor Day. In the second quarter, we incurred $9 million in redeployment costs, as well as continued to reinvest in efficiency as we invest in our efficiencies and manage our cost structure.

Matthew Cagwin: Switching to our expense redeployment program, we continue to make progress on our five-year, $150 million program, which we announced during our Investor Day. In the second quarter, we incurred $9 million of redeployment costs, as well as we continue to reinvest in our efficiencies and manage our cost structure. So far this year, we have taken action, which we expect to free up over $50 million in 2024. This is in addition to the $50 million we freed up in 2023. We are now 18 months into our five-year commitment and have achieved two-thirds of our Investor Day goal.

Speaker Change: Now, switching to our expense redeployment program, we continue to make progress on our five-year, $150 million program, which we announced during our Investor Day. In the second quarter, we incurred $9 million of redeployment costs.

Speaker Change: as well as we continue to reinvest in efficiency as we invested in our efficiencies and manage our cost structure.

Matthew Cagwin: So far this year, we have taken action that we expect to free up over $50 million in 2024. This is in addition to the $50 million we freed up in 2023. We are now 18 months into our five-year commitment and have achieved two-thirds of our Investor Day goal. After being at Western Union for two years, I am even more confident that we have meaningful opportunities left to improve both our efficiency and effectiveness. Now turning to our cash flow and balance sheet. Year to date, we generated $60 million of operating cash flows, which was negatively impacted by $160 million paid to the IRS related to our tax act.

Speaker Change: So far this year, we have taken action which we expect to free up over $50 million in 2024. This is in addition to the $50 million we freed up in 2023.

Speaker Change: We are now 18 months into our 5-year commitment and have achieved two-thirds of our Investor Day goal.

Matthew Cagwin: After being a Westian Union for two years, I am even more confident that we have meaningful opportunities left to improve both our efficiency and effectiveness. Now, turning to our cash flow and balance sheet, year-to-date, we generated $60 million of operating cash flows, which was negatively impacted by $160 million paid to the IRS related to our tax act. Over $30 million in refundable deposits made to the IRS related to a proposed settlement of potential U.S. federal tax liabilities and almost $30 million related to pre-funding of our count payout partners, which is one of our highest growth areas.

Speaker Change: After being at Western Union for two years, I am even more confident that we have meaningful opportunities left to improve both our efficiency and effectiveness.

Speaker Change: Now, turning to our cash flow and balance sheet. Year to date, we generated $60 million of operating cash flows, which was negatively impacted by $160 million paid to the IRS related to our tax act.

Matthew Cagwin: Over $30 million in refundable deposits made to the IRS related to a proposed settlement of potential U.S. federal tax liabilities and almost $30 million related to pre-funding of our account payout partners, which is one of our highest growth areas. Capital expenditures were approximately $65 million in the first half of the year and were almost 30% lower than the first half of last year as we have remained vigilant in investing in the right areas and shifting our agents from large upfront signing bonuses to performance-driven commission structures.

Speaker Change: Over $30 million in refundable deposits made to the IRS related to a proposed settlement of potential U.S. federal tax liabilities and almost $30 million related to pre-funding of our account payout partners, which is one of our highest growth areas.

Matthew Cagwin: Capital expenditures were approximately $65 million in the first half of the year and were almost 30% lower in the first half of last year, as we have remained vigilant on investing in the right areas and shifting our agents from large upfront signing bonuses to performance-driven commission structures. I am also pleased that year-to-date, we have returned $335 million to our owners, with $159 million being paid in dividends and $176 million in share of purchases. We have continued to maintain a strong balance sheet with cash and cash equivalents of over $1 billion in debt of $2.6 billion.

Speaker Change: Capital expenditures were approximately $65 million in the first half of the year.

Speaker Change: And we're almost 30% lower than the first half of last year as we have remained vigilant on investing in the right areas and shifting our agents from large upfront signing bonuses to performance-driven commission structures.

Matthew Cagwin: I am also pleased that, year to date, we have returned $335 million to our owners, with $159 million being paid in dividends and $176 million in share purchases. We have continued to maintain a strong balance sheet with cash and cash equivalents of over $1 billion and debt of $2.6 billion. Our leverage ratios remain strong, and we're at 2.7 times and 1.6 times on a growth basis, which we believe provides us with ample flexibility to return capital or potential M&A while maintaining our investment grade credit rating.

Speaker Change: I am also pleased that year-to-date we have returned $335 million to our owners, with $159 million being paid in dividends and $176 million in share purchases.

Speaker Change: We have continued to maintain a strong balance sheet with cash and cash equivalents of over $1 billion and debt of $2.6 billion.

Matthew Cagwin: Our leverage ratios remained strong and were at 2.7 times and 1.6 times on a growth in that basis, which we believe provides us with ample flexibility to return capital or potential M&A while maintaining our investment grade credit rating.

Speaker Change: Our leverage ratios remain strong, and we're at 2.7x and 1.6x on a gross-in-net basis, which we believe provides us with ample flexibility to return capital or potential M&A while maintaining our investment-grade credit rating.

Matthew Cagwin: Now moving on to our outlook. Today, based on performance in the second quarter, and our confidence for the remainder of the year, we are reconfirming our 2024 outlook. This outlook assumes no material changes in our macroeconomic conditions. As a reminder, we expect adjusted revenue to be in the range of $4,150,000,000 to $4,225,000. Adjusted operating margins are expected to be in the range of 19-21%, and finally, adjusted EPS expect to be in the range of $1,70,000 to $1,80,000. As you think about the phasing for the rest of the year, we expect to have continued steady improvement in our adjusted revenue, excluding our rack, for the remainder of the year.

Matthew Cagwin: Now moving on to our Outlook. Today, based on the performance in the second quarter and our confidence for the remainder of the year, we are reconfirming our 2024 outlook. This outlook assumes no material changes in our macroeconomic condition.

Speaker Change: Now moving on to our Outlook. Today, baseman performance in the second quarter.

Speaker Change: And our confidence for the remainder of the year, we are reconfirming our 2024 outlook. This outlook assumes no material changes in our macroeconomic conditions.

Matthew Cagwin: As a reminder, we expect adjusted revenue to be in the range of $4,150,000,000 to $4,225,000,000, adjusted operating margins to be in the range of 19 to 21 percent, and finally, adjusted EPS is expected to be in the range of $1.70 to $1.80. As you think about the phasing for the rest of the year, we expect to have continued steady improvement in our adjusted revenue, excluding our RAC, for the remainder of the year. As a reminder, Q3 2023 included $87 million of revenue from Iraq, and we expect somewhere between 10 and 30 million dollars of revenue from Iraq going forward per quarter.

Speaker Change: As a reminder, we expect adjusted revenue to be in the range of $4,150,000,000 to $4,225,000,000.

Speaker Change: Adjusted operating margins are expected to be in the range of 19 to 21 percent and finally adjusted EPS is expected to be in the range of $1.70 to $1.80.

Speaker Change: As you think about the phasing for the rest of the year, we expect to have continued steady improvement in our adjusted revenue excluding our RAC for the remainder of the year.

Matthew Cagwin: As a reminder, Q3 2023 included $87,000,000 of revenue for my rack. And we expect somewhere between $10,000,000 and $30,000 of revenue for my rack going forward per quarter. Additionally, our operating margins were lower than our 19-21% outlook in the fourth quarter during the past two years, as we have invested in our evolved strategy. We do not expect our margins to be compressed to the same level this year. To recap, we are confident with the trends that we are seeing in the first half of 2024, as well as the progress we are making towards our evolved 2025 strategy.

Speaker Change: As a reminder, Q3 2023 included $87 million of revenue from Iraq.

Speaker Change: And we expect somewhere between 10 and 30 million dollars of revenue from Iraq going forward per quarter.

Matthew Cagwin: Additionally, our operating margins were lower than our 19 to 21% outlook in the fourth quarter of the past two years as we have invested in our evolved strategy. We do not expect our margins to be compressed to the same level this year. To recap, we are confident with the trends that we are seeing in the first half of 2024, as well as the progress we are making towards our evolved 2025 strategy.

Speaker Change: Additionally, our operating margins were lower than our 19-21% outlook in the fourth quarter during the past two years as we have invested in our evolved strategy. We do not expect our margins to be compressed to the same level this year.

Speaker Change: To recap, we are confident with the trends we are seeing in the first half of 2024, as well as the progress we are making towards our Evolve 2025 strategy.

Unknown Attendee: Thank you for joining the call today, and operator, Rurei, take questions. We will pause momentarily to compile the Q&A roster. As a reminder, each person is allowed one question with one follow-up question. All participants will be in listen-only mode.

Matthew Cagwin: Thank you for joining the call today, and Operator, we're ready to take questions. We will pause momentarily to compile the Q&A roster. As a reminder, each person is allowed one question with one follow-up question. All participants will be in listen-only mode.

Speaker Change: Thank you for joining the call today, and operator, we're ready to take questions. We will pause momentarily to compile the Q&A roster. As a reminder, each person is allowed one question with one follow-up question.

Speaker Change: All participants will be in listen-only mode.

Will Nant: Our first question comes to us from Will Nant, from Goldman Sachs. Please unmute and ask your question. I wanted to follow up maybe on some of the comments at the top of the call around industry pricing. I guess it's interesting to hear that. I think you're right. That's probably different than the general consensus out there.

Operator: Our first question comes to us from Will Nance from Goldman Sachs. Please unmute and ask your question. Hey guys, appreciate it. Let me ask you a question.

Speaker Change: Our first question comes to us from Will Nance from Goldman Sachs. Please unmute and ask your question.

William Alfred Nance: I wanted to follow up on some of the comments at the top of the call around industry pricing. I guess, you know, it's interesting to hear that. I think I think you're right. That's probably different than the kind of general consensus out there. So I guess I would just kind of turn it back on you guys around the pricing dynamics and competitive dynamics in the market. Does that kind of feel right to you?

William Alfred Nance: Hey guys, appreciate it. Let me ask a question. I wanted to follow up maybe on some of the comments at the top of the call around industry pricing.

Speaker Change: I guess.

Speaker Change: Yeah, it's interesting to hear that I think I think you're right. That's probably different than the kind of general consensus out there So I guess I would just kind of turn it back on you guys around the pricing dynamics competitive dynamics in the market

Will Nant: I guess I would just turn it back on you guys around the pricing dynamic, competitive dynamics in the market. Does that kind of feel right to you? Where do you think the biggest price reductions are happening out there in the industry? Do you feel like there is a tailwind in the business right now as it relates to pricing actions in some of the competitors?

Devin B. McGranahan: Where do you think the biggest price reductions are happening out there in the industry? And do you feel like there is a tailwind in the business right now, as it relates to kind of pricing actions and some of the competitors? Yeah, well, I think there's two things at work in your question.

Speaker Change: Does that kind of feel right to you? Where do you think the biggest price reductions are happening out there in the industry? And do you feel like there is a tailwind in the in the business right now as it relates to kind of pricing actions of some of the competitors?

Devin B. McGranahan: One is, what I was trying to emphasize, which is the macro across the globe, trend lines, which for several years we have seen with price compression, the World Bank data would indicate some of that has alleviated versus, I think, where you're going. In any given market, in any given period of time, there are competitors who are more aggressive or less aggressive. And we continue to see specific competitors in specific markets taking action.

Devin Mcgranahan: Well, I think there's two things that work in your question. One is what I was trying to emphasize, which is the macro across the globe trend lines, which for several years we have seen with price compression. The World Bank data would indicate some of that has alleviated. First is I think we're you're going in any given market and in any given period of time, there are competitors who are more aggressive or less aggressive. And we continue to see specific competitors in specific markets taking action. But we feel confident that the aggregate is stabilizing and, in some cases, may be moving in the right way, particularly as marginal and small or particularly corridor-specific specialists seem to be coming either more rational or exiting the market.

Speaker Change: Yeah, well, I think there's two things at work in your question.

Speaker Change: What I was trying to emphasize, which is the macro across the globe, trend lines, which for several years we have seen.

Speaker Change: With price compression the World Bank data would indicate some of that has alleviated

Speaker Change: versus I think where you're going in any given market in any given period of time there are competitors who are more aggressive or less aggressive and you know we continue to see specific competitors in specific markets taking action.

Devin B. McGranahan: But we feel confident that the aggregate is stabilizing and, in some cases, maybe moving in the right way, particularly as marginal and small or, particularly corridor-specific specialists seem to be coming either more rational or exiting the market.

Speaker Change: But we feel confident that the aggregate is stabilizing, and in some cases, maybe moving in the right way, particularly as marginal and small, or particularly corridor.

Speaker Change: Specific specialists seem to be coming either more rational or exiting the market

Will Nant: I got it. That makes it, on a sense.

William Alfred Nance: That makes a lot of sense. And then I heard the comments about expecting a kind of more steady progress on the spread of digital revenues versus transactions. I wonder if you could kind of speak to the retail side of the business. And then, I guess, across both of them, if there's any kind of notable comps we should be keeping in mind over the past, call it, you know, nine months or so that can kind of help us think about, you know, lapping some of the pricing actions you've been taking across the business.

Unknown Attendee: And then I heard the comments on expecting kind of more steady progress on the spread, on digital revenues versus transactions. One of you could kind of speak to the retail side of the business.

Speaker Change: Got it. That makes a ton of sense. And then I heard the comments on expecting kind of more steady progress on the spread on digital revenues versus transactions. I wonder if you could kind of speak to

Devin Mcgranahan: And then I guess across both of them, if there's any kind of notable cons, we should be keeping in mind over the past, call it nine months or so, that can kind of help us think about, you know, laughing some of the pricing actions you've been taking across the business. Well, as we've said, you know, many times, the laughing is what drives the aggregate narrowing of the gap. But we also have other dynamics that are going on in the spread, some of which you heard about on the call, which is, you know, the shift to pay out to account, which on general in general is a lower RPT, which will continue to keep in persist with some spread.

Speaker Change: The retail side of the business, and then I guess across both of them, if there's any kind of notable comps we should be keeping in mind over the past, call it, you know, nine months or so, that can kind of help us help us think about, you know, lapping some of the pricing actions you've been taking across the business.

William Alfred Nance: We've said many times that the lapping is what drives the aggregate narrowing of the gap, but we also have other dynamics that are going on in the spread, some of which you heard about on the call, which is the shift to... payout to account, which in general is a lower RPT, which will continue to keep and persist with some spread, as well as individual corridor mixes. Some corridors, particularly some of the larger and faster growth corridors, are higher RPT.

Speaker Change: It will.

Speaker Change: As we've said, you know, many times.

Speaker Change: payout to account, which in general is a lower RPT, which will continue to keep and persist with some spread, as well as individual corridor mixes. Some corridors, particularly some of the larger and faster growth corridors, are higher RPT. So as we index in those to drive growth, you will also see some compression in those RPTs and therefore continuance of the spread.

Devin Mcgranahan: As well as individual corridor mixes, some corridors, particularly some of the larger and faster growth corridors, are higher RPT. So as we index in those to drive growth, you will also see some compression in those RPTs and therefore continuance of the spread. We do remain confident, as we have stated, that we can narrow that gap to be three to 400 basis points over time. And we are on a lockstep program to get there bad.

Devin B. McGranahan: So as we index in on those to drive growth, you will also see some compression in those RPTs and, therefore, a continuance of the spread. We do remain confident, as we have stated, that we can narrow that gap to be three to four hundred basis points over time, and we are on a lockstep program to get there. Matt, I don't know if you want to add anything.

Matthew Cagwin: We do remain confident, as we have stated, that we can narrow that gap to be three to four hundred basis points over time, and we are on a lockstep program to get there. Matt, I don't know if you want to add anything. Here's one thing, Will, just since you probably already know this and everyone else probably knows it, but the other thing that we do love about our account payout customers

Devin Mcgranahan: I don't know if you want to add something. We'll just some cheap I already know this in our bills, but the other thing that we do love about our count payout customers is they are typically a stickier customer. Typically have a large higher lifetime value. So we're actually very excited and are targeting those customers where the market's growing, but it does create a little bit of near-term RPT compression.

Matthew Cagwin: Here's one thing, Will, I'm sure you probably already know this and everybody else probably knows it, but the other thing that we do love about our account payout customers is they are typically stickier customers and typically have a higher lifetime value. So we're actually very excited and are targeting those customers where the market's growing, but it does create a little bit of near-term RPT compression. Our next question comes to us from Darrin Peller from Wolfe Research. Please unmute and ask your question.

Matthew Cagwin: is they are typically a stickier customer, typically have a higher lifetime value. So we're actually very excited and are targeting those customers where the market's growing, but it does create a little bit of near-term RPT compression.

Darren Peller: Our next question comes to us from Darren Peller from Wolf Research. Please unmute and ask your question. Hey guys, thanks. If you could help us understand a little bit more of your expectations on the trajectory on a retail versus digital transactions standpoint, it looked to us like your retail side was around flat. From a growth rate standpoint, I think it had grown a couple of percent last quarter. So just maybe a little more on the numbers, but then also Devon just, you know, obviously there's always pricing adjustments here and there, the majority of which anniversary.

Speaker Change: Our next question comes to us from Darrin Peller from Wolf Research. Please unmute and ask your question.

Darrin David Peller: Hey guys, thanks. If you could help us understand a little bit more of your expectations on the trajectory of retail versus digital transactions, it looked to us like your retail side was around flat from a growth rate standpoint. I think it had grown a couple of percent last quarter.

Darrin David Peller: Hey guys, thanks. If you could help us understand a little bit more of your expectations on the trajectory on a retail versus digital transaction standpoint.

Darrin David Peller: It looked to us like your retail side was around flat.

Darrin David Peller: from a growth rate standpoint I think it had grown a couple of percent last quarter so just maybe a little more on the numbers but then also Devin just

Darrin David Peller: So just maybe a little more on the numbers, but also, Devin, just, obviously, there's always pricing adjustments here and there, the majority of which anniversary. So what do you expect to do in terms of the tactics and the tools to take to really help accelerate overall or just keep your transaction growth rates positive in the mid-single digit level more broadly? Just keep doing what you're doing, or any more specifics would be great.

Devin B. McGranahan: You know obviously there's there's always pricing adjustments here and there you the majority of which anniversary So what do you expect to do in terms of the tactics and the tools to take to really help? Accelerate overall or just keep your transaction growth rates positive the mid single-digit

Matthew Cagwin: So what do you expect to do in terms of the tactics and the tools to take to really help accelerate overalls or just keep your transaction growth rates positive the mid single digit level more broadly? Just keep doing what you're doing or any more specifically great. Hey Darren, thanks for joining the call. I'm going to tackle the first half of that, and then Devon will tackle a second. But on your question around. Your first part of the question there around really spreads. Thank you. We would expect to continue closer to the 400 basis points that Devon talked about a minute ago, but the other part of your question really was around what are we expecting for the transaction growth rates, the first part of your question there.

Matthew Cagwin: Hey, Darrin, thanks for joining the call. I'm going to tackle the first half of that, and then Devin will tackle the second. Your first part of the question there around really, um... Spreads. Thank you, Devin. I blinked on it.

Devin B. McGranahan: level more broadly, just keep doing what you're doing, or any more specifics would be great. Hey, Darren, thanks for joining the call. I'm gonna tackle the first half of that, and then Devin will tackle the second. But on your question around

Devin B. McGranahan: We would expect to continue closer to the 400 basis points that Devin talked about a minute ago. But the other part of your question really was around what are we expecting for the transaction growth rates, the first part of your question there. We've now had five quarters in a row of double digit, 12-13 percent.

Matthew Cagwin: We would expect to continue to be closer to the 400 basis points that Devin talked about a minute ago. But the other part of your question really was around what we are expecting for the transaction growth rates, the first part of your question there. We've now had five quarters in a row of double-digit, 12%, 13% branded digital transaction growth. We've had four quarters of basically flattish, sometimes a little bit above zero, sometimes a little bit below, but it's basically been flattish now for four quarters in a row. So it wasn't really 2%.

Matthew Cagwin: We've now had five quarters in a row of double-digit, 12, 13% branded digital transaction growth. We've had now four quarters of basically flatish, sometimes a little bit above zero, sometimes a little bit below, but it's basically been flatish now for four quarters in a row. So it wasn't really two percent that might be a white label and patch you're doing in your map there, but we feel very good about the trajectory we were on, as Devon talked about a minute ago. We've got significant work we're still doing both on rolling out quick recent. Remember me all the technology we're doing in retail, which we think will continue to provide a tailwind for us, as well as all the work that Devon talked about in the opening.

Devin B. McGranahan: branded digital transaction growth. We've had now four quarters of basically flattish, sometimes a little bit above zero, sometimes a little bit below, but it's basically been flattish now for four quarters in a row. So it wasn't really 2%. That might be a white label impact you're doing in your math there. But we feel very good about the trajectory we were on. As Devin talked about a minute ago, we've got significant work we're still doing both on rolling out Quick Resend, Remember Me, all the technology we're doing in retail, which we think will continue to provide a tailwind for us.

Matthew Cagwin: That might be a white label impact you're doing in your math there, but we feel very good about the trajectory we were on. As Devin talked about a minute ago, we've got significant work we're still doing, both on rolling out Quick Resend and Remember Me, and all the technology we're doing in retail, which we think will continue to provide a tailwind for us, as well as all the work that Devin talked about in the opening that we're working on in our branded digital business around the solutions, the examples he gave on Australia, and so forth. Yep.

Devin Mcgranahan: We're working on our branded digital business around the solutions, the example that Devon Australia and so forth, so we feel very good about the sustainability of both those and continued opportunity for improvements.

Devin B. McGranahan: As well as all the work that Devin talked about in the opening that we're working on in our branded digital business around the solutions, the examples he gave on Australia, and so forth. So we feel very good about the sustainability of both those and continued opportunity for improvement.

Devin Mcgranahan: Chairman. Yep. And to your second question, Darrin, about where do we go from here? So first, we are very positive about the fact that we've sustained consistent transaction growth, as Matt said, in digital at 12 plus percent and in retail flatish, which has given us three or four quarters, now a five percent. If we narrow the goal, we can expect revenue to continue to trend towards that transaction. We have a whole set of programs that I was talking about, whether it's kind of funnel effectiveness on digital or improving continued our retail point of sale, our customer loyalty, our ongoing transaction excellence program, to continue to drive those numbers up. But in the short term, creating the platform to drive consistent growth and to continue narrowing the gap between revenue and transactions is where we're headed for the rest of this year.

Devin B. McGranahan: And to your second question, Darrin, about where we go from here? So first, we are very positive about the fact that we've sustained consistent transaction growth, as Matt said, in digital at 12 plus percent and in retail at flattish, which has given us, you know, three or four quarters now of 5%. As we narrow the goal, we can expect revenue to continue to trend towards that transaction. We have a whole set of programs that I was talking about, whether it's kind of funnel effectiveness on digital or improving our retail point of sale, our customer loyalty, and our ongoing transaction excellence program to continue to drive those numbers up.

Speaker Change: Yep, and

Speaker Change: to your second question, Darrin, about

Speaker Change: Where do we go from here? So first, we are very positive about the fact that we've sustained consistent transaction growth as Matt said in digital at 12 plus percent and in retail flattish Which has given us, you know, three or four quarters now of five percent

Speaker Change: As we narrow the goal, we can expect revenue to continue to trend towards that transaction.

Speaker Change: We have a whole set of programs that I was talking about, whether it's...

Speaker Change: kind of funnel effectiveness on digital, or improving continued our retail point of sale, our customer loyalty, our ongoing transaction excellence program to continue to drive those numbers up. But in the short term, creating the platform to drive consistent growth, and to continue narrowing the gap between revenue and transactions is where we're headed for the rest of this year. Transcripts provided by Transcription Outsourcing, LLC.

Tin Jin Wang: Our next question comes to us from Tin Jin Wang from JP Morgan.

Devin B. McGranahan: But in the short term, creating the platform to drive consistent growth and to continue narrowing the gap between revenue and transactions is where we're headed for the rest of this year. Our next question comes to us from Tianjin Wong from J.P. Morgan. Please unmute and ask your question. Hey, good afternoon, Devin and Matt.

Speaker Change: Our next question comes to us from Tin Jin Wong from J.P. Morgan. Please unmute and ask your question.

Matthew Cagwin: Please unmute and ask your question. I want to ask on the margin front. I know it was in the range, but at a second quarter, margin come in versus your plan and any call out from the second half margin cadence. I know it was in considerations with Iraq and consumer services, marketing, etc.

Tianjin Wong: I wanted to ask on the margin front. I know it's in the range, but how did the second quarter margin come in versus your plan and any call outs on the second half margin cadence? I know there are some considerations with Iraq and consumer services, marketing, etc.

Speaker Change: Hey good afternoon, Devin and Matt. I wanted to ask on the margin front

Speaker Change: I know it was in the range, but how did the second quarter margin come in versus your plan, and any call-outs from the...

Speaker Change: The second half of March in Cadence, I know there's some considerations with Iraq and consumer services, marketing, etc.

Matthew Cagwin: Hey Tin Jin, thanks for joining the call. The margins ended up having a little bit of a headwind this quarter that we weren't expecting related to foreign currency. We pre-buy currencies in some of the markets around the world, and if you monitor the Mexican peso, we've seen a strong appreciation throughout the quarter. But we feel very good about our margins. Beyond that, we're right where we expected to be. We're very happy with our 44 cents. That was in the range of where we were expecting to be for the quarter, but from an operating margin, that was the one watch out that we'll move over time, and a higher currency actually helps us long-term on revenue; it just has a little bit of a bite on the currency you're holding.

Matthew Cagwin: Hey, attention. Thanks for joining the call. The margins ended up having a little bit of a headwind this quarter that we weren't expecting related to foreign currency. We pre-buy currencies in some of the markets around the world.

Speaker Change: Hey attention, thanks for joining the call. The margins end up having a little bit of a headwind this quarter that we weren't expecting related to foreign currency. We pre-buy currencies in some of the markets around the world.

Matthew Cagwin: And if you monitor the Mexican peso, we've seen a strong appreciation throughout the quarter, but we feel very good about our margins. Beyond that, we were right where we expected to be. We're very happy with our 44 cents, which was in the range of where we're expecting to be for the quarter.

Speaker Change: And if you monitor the Mexican peso, we've seen a strong appreciation throughout the quarter. But we feel very good about our margins.

Speaker Change: Beyond that, we were right where we expected to be. We're very happy with our 44 cents. That was in the range of what we were expecting to be for the quarter. But from an operating margin, that was the one watch out that

Speaker Change: We'll move over time and...

Speaker Change: A higher currency actually helps us long-term on revenue, just has a little bit of a...

Tin Jin Wang: I see, so I think that helps.

Tianjin Wong: That helps. Okay, just real quick in my follow up, then on consumer services. Good, good result there. I know the comp is a little bit tougher in the third quarter, but just the confidence here in the double digits. Anything more to share in terms of what's contributing in the very near term amongst the newer initiatives? You know, we're starting to see a bunch of traction, as we highlighted in this call with things like our Forex business in Europe, where we've expanded now into two or three more countries, and our media network, which is now starting to get some traction here in the US.

Speaker Change: Buy it on the currency you're holding.

Matthew Cagwin: Okay, just move quickly in my follow-up and on consumer services, good result there. I know the comp is a little bit tougher in the third quarter, but just the confidence here in the double digits, anything more to share in terms of what's contributing in the very near term amongst the newer initiatives. We're starting to see a bunch of traction, as we highlighted in this call, with things like our forex business in Europe, where we've expanded now into two or three more countries. Our media network, which is now starting to get some traction here in the US, and as you know, we've launched a prepaid card here in the US.

Speaker Change: I see, so adverse effects.

Speaker Change: That helps. Okay, just real quick in my follow-up then. On consumer services, good result there. I know the comp is a little bit tougher in the third quarter, but just the confidence here in the double digits, anything more to share in terms of what's contributing in the very near term amongst the newer initiatives?

Speaker Change: You know, we're starting to see a bunch of traction as we highlighted in this call with things like our Forex business in Europe , where we've expanded now into two or three more countries.

Tianjin Wong: And as you know, we've launched a prepaid card here in the US. We've also seen a bit of a headwind in the bill pay business, particularly in Argentina, given all the disruption in that country and the strength of that business historically for us. It should start to reverse itself as the politics and the inflation there may have settled down into something more normative. We feel pretty good about our projection for double digit growth for the rest of the year.

Speaker Change: Our media network, which is now starting to get some traction here in the U.S. And as you know, we've launched a prepaid card here in the U.S.

Matthew Cagwin: We've also seen a bit of a headwind in the bill-pay business, particularly in Argentina, given all the disruption in that country and the strength of that business historically for us. It should start to reverse itself as the politics and the inflation there may be settled down into something more normative. We feel pretty good about our projection for the double digit for the rest of the year, and there's enough stuff in the pipeline to continue that trajectory for at least a foreseeable future.

Speaker Change: We've also seen a bit of a headwind in the bill pay business, particularly in Argentina, given all the disruption in that country and the strength of that business historically for us, it should start to reverse itself as the

Speaker Change: politics and the inflation there maybe settled down into something more normative. We feel pretty good about our projection for the double digit for the rest of the year, and there's enough stuff in the pipeline to continue that trajectory for at least a foreseeable future.

Tianjin Wong: And there's enough stuff in the pipeline to continue that trajectory for at least the foreseeable future. That's great, that's great, thank you. Our next question comes to us from Vasundhara Govil from KVW. Please unmute and ask your question. Hi, thanks for taking my question. Some of them were already answered.

Unknown Attendee: Thank you.

Vasu Govil: Our next question comes to us from Vasu Govil from KVW. Please unmute and ask your question. We had talked about our last quarterly call that we had expected the range of 10 to 30 per quarter for the remainder of the year. Q2 came in at 34, so a little above the upper end. We had a relatively stable monthly trend during the second quarter. So we continue to believe it would be 10 to 30, but it's a very volatile market, as you saw last year with a high mark of 118 and a low mark in Q1 of 25.

Vasundhara Govil: Just two quick ones. One on IRAC revenues. Matt, I think I caught your comment that you're still expecting 10 to 30 million, I think per quarter, just any change in expectation there versus what you were expecting previously. Hey Vasu, thanks for joining the call.

Speaker Change: That's great. That's great. Thank you. Our next question comes to us from Vasundhara Govil from KBW. Please unmute and ask your question.

Vasundhara Govil: Hi, thanks for taking my question. Some of them were already answered. Just two quick ones. One on Iraq revenues. Matt, I think I caught your comment that you're still expecting 10 to 30 million, I think, per quarter. Just any change in expectation there versus what you were expecting previously?

Matthew Cagwin: Now we talked about in our last quarterly call that we had expected the range of 10 to 30 per quarter for the remainder of the year. Q2 came in at 34, so a little above the upper end. We had a relatively stable monthly trend during the second quarter. So we continue to believe it'd be 10 to 30, but it's a very volatile market. As you saw last year with a high mark of 118 and a low mark in Q1 of 25. So we think it's going to be much more normal, but it's still a very volatile market. So that's why we have a wide range there of 10 to $30 million. Got it.

Vasundhara Govil: Hey Vasu, thanks for joining the call. Now we had talked about our last quarterly call that we had expected the range of 10 to 30 per quarter for the remainder of the year.

Speaker Change: Q2 came in at 34, so a little above the upper end. We had a relatively stable monthly trend during the second quarter.

Speaker Change: So we continue to believe it'd be 10 to 30, but it's a very volatile market. As you saw last year with a high mark of 118 and low mark in Q1 of 25. So we think it's going to be much more normative, but it's still a very volatile market. So that's why we've got the wide range there of 10 to $30 million.

Matthew Cagwin: So we think it's going to be much more normative, but it's still a very volatile market. So that's why we've got the wide range of $10 to $39 per quarter. Thank you for that. Which was the same range that we gave last quarter, coming out of the accelerated first quarter, which we knew would not continue given how we've solved some of our partner and settlement issues. So I think that range is a reasonable range, although a bit wide, given all the gives and takes that are there, and we're pretty close this quarter to it. That makes sense.

Vasundhara Govil: Thank you. Thank you for that! And which was the same range that we gave last quarter coming out of the accelerated first quarter, which we knew would not continue given how we'd solved some of our partner and settlement issues. So I think that range is a reasonable range, although a bit wide, given all the gives and takes that are there, and we were pretty close to it this quarter. That makes sense. Thank you very much.

Speaker Change: Thank you for that and just the same which was the same range that we gave last quarter coming out of the accelerated first quarter which we knew would not continue given how we've solved some of our

Speaker Change: partner in settlement issues. So I think that range is a reasonable range, although a bit wide, given all the gives and takes that are there, and we were pretty close this quarter to it.

Devin B. McGranahan: Just a quick one for you, Devin, on capital allocation. I know you've been focused on M&A. How are you thinking about prioritizing that versus more buybacks to the extent that you're not seeing assets in the market? I'm very excited about the stability that we've now been able to achieve in our core operating business, and with three or four quarters of that stability behind us, it gives us confidence that we could execute an M&A transaction, integrate it into the company, and then drive value from it. So we will continue to look.

Unknown Attendee: Thank you very much.

Unknown Attendee: Just a quick one for you, David, on capital allocation. I know you've been focused on M&A. How are you thinking about prioritizing that versus more buybacks to the extent that you're not seeing assets in the market? I'm very excited about the stability that we've now been able to achieve in our core operating business, and with three or four quarters of that stability behind, it gives us confidence that we could execute an M&A transaction integrated into the company and then drive value from it. So we continue to look. Obviously, we're disciplined buyers, and I've expressed on this call that we remain very focused on ensuring capital allocation that is favorable from our shareholders' point of view.

Speaker Change: That makes sense. Thank you very much. Just quick one for you, Devin, on capital allocation. I know you've been focused on M&A. How are you thinking about prioritizing that versus more buybacks to the extent that, you know, you're not seeing assets in the market?

Devin B. McGranahan: I'm very excited about the stability that we've now been able to achieve in our core operating business and with three or four quarters of that stability behind gives us confidence that we could execute an M&A transaction, integrate it into the company and then drive value from it. So we continue to look, obviously we're disciplined buyers and I've expressed on this call that we remain very focused on ensuring

Devin B. McGranahan: Obviously, we're disciplined buyers, and I've expressed on this call that we remain very focused on ensuring capital allocation that is favorable from our shareholders' point of view. So, if the right opportunities come along, I believe we now have an operating platform on which we can drive successful value creation and integration. We just have to make sure it's the right opportunity. Our next question comes to us from Andrew Schmidt from Citi. Please unmute and ask your question. Hey Devin. Hey Matt,

Devin B. McGranahan: capital allocation that is favorable from our shareholders point of view. So if the right opportunities come along, I believe we now have an operating platform in which we can drive successful value creation and integration. We just have to make sure it's the right opportunity.

Devin Mcgranahan: So if the right opportunities come along, I believe we now have an operating platform in which we can drive successful value creation and integration; we just have to make sure it's the right opportunity.

Andrew Schmidt: Our next question comes to us from Andrew Schmidt from City.

Speaker Change: Our next question comes to us from Andrew Schmidt from Citi. Please unmute and ask your question.

Andrew Schmidt: Please unmute and ask your question. Hey, Devon. Hey, Matt. Thanks for taking my questions. First on just digital marketing. I know that you're seeing some good history of results. Is it time to put more money in digital marketing, or do you feel good about the current spend level? Just curious about the digital marketing investment as a starting point? Thanks a lot.

Andrew Garth Schmidt: Thanks for taking my questions. First, on just digital marketing. Now that you're seeing, you know, some good history of results, is it time to put more money in digital marketing? Or do you feel good about the current spend levels? Just curious about the digital marketing investment as a starting point. Thanks a lot.

Andrew Garth Schmidt: Hey Devin, hey Matt, thanks for taking my questions. First on just digital marketing, now that you're seeing you know some good history of results, is it time to put more money in digital marketing or do you feel good about the current spend levels? Just curious about the digital marketing investment as a starting point. Thanks a lot.

Devin Mcgranahan: That's a great question. Something we look at every quarter, and as you probably can tell because we only reported once a year, we vary the amount we spend in any given quarter based on the calendar, the holiday seasons, and the effectiveness of the programs that we're running. As I started to talk about two years ago, we made a pretty significant shift going from what I will call a marketing budgeted approach to a very disciplined LTV to CAC approach. And so when we see opportunities that look like we can invest more money and maintain our discipline around LTV to CAC, we put money to work.

Devin B. McGranahan: Great question. Something we look at every quarter, and as you probably can't tell because we only report it once a year, we vary the amount we spend in any given quarter based on the calendar, the holiday seasons, and the effectiveness of the programs that we're running. As I started to talk about two years ago, we made a pretty significant shift going from what I will call a marketing budgeted approach to a very disciplined LTV to CAC approach.

Speaker Change: It's a great question. Something we look at every quarter, and as you probably can't tell because we only report it once a year, we vary the amount we spend in any given quarter based on the calendar, the holiday seasons, and the effectiveness of

Speaker Change: The programs that we're running.

Speaker Change: As I started to talk about two years ago, we made a pretty significant shift.

Devin B. McGranahan: And so when we see opportunities that look like we can invest more money and maintain our discipline around LTV to CAC, we put money to work. And so we are driving that program forward. And as those opportunities arise, like I highlighted in Australia, we'll put more money behind them. Got it. Thank you for that, Devin. And then I want to go back to the comments on the environment.

Andrew Garth Schmidt: going from what I will call a marketing budgeted approach to a very disciplined LTV to CAC approach. And so when we see opportunities that look like we can invest more money and maintain our discipline around LTV to CAC, we put money to work. And so we are driving that program forward. And as those opportunities create, like I highlighted in Australia, we'll put more money behind it.

Devin Mcgranahan: And so we are driving that program forward. And as those opportunities create, like I highlighted in Australia, we'll put more money behind it.

Devin Mcgranahan: David, thanks for that, Devin. And then I want to go back to the comments on the environment. Yeah, we've been seeing the rationalization too in the retail and market specifically. In your comment on the retail agent activations, we're interesting. Is this create sort of a material tailwind? Do you think the growth, as you kind of pick up more white space, particularly in the US, in more broadly globally? Or is it more something that's supportive of just the current trend line? Just curious to take your temperature on that. Thanks a lot.

Speaker Change: Got it. Thank you for that, Devin. And then I want to go back to the the comments on the environment. Yeah, we've been seeing the rationalization to in the retail and market specifically, in your comment on the, the retail agent activations were interesting. Does this create sort of a material tailwind? Do you think the growth is you kind of pick up more white space, particularly in the US and more broadly globally? Or is it more something that's, you know, supportive of just the current trend line? Just curious to take your temperature on that. Thanks a lot. Yeah, great question. As you know, we've

Andrew Garth Schmidt: Yeah, we've been seeing rationalization too in the retail and market specifically. Your comment on the retail agent activations was interesting. Does this create sort of a material tailwind?

Devin B. McGranahan: Do you think the growth as you kind of pick up more white space, particularly in the US and more broadly globally, or is it more something that's supportive of just the current trend line? Just curious to take your temperature on that. Thanks a lot. Yeah, a great question. As you know, we've paid a lot of attention to network productivity. So we've moved again from the idea that total count is the metric that matters to productive agent locations.

Devin Mcgranahan: Yeah, great question. As you know, we've paid a lot of attention to network productivity. So we've moved again from the idea that total count is the metric that matters to productive agent locations is the metric that matters. We've also focused a lot on how we get our pyramid right across our strategic distribution partners, our independent agent partners, our control distribution, which is our concept stores and our own stores. I think what you see in North America is that team is really driving the program forward. It's part of what has helped propel our retail results to this point in time.

Speaker Change: We've paid a lot of attention to network productivity, so we've moved again from the idea that total count is the metric that matters to productive agent locations is the metric that matters. We've also focused a lot on how we get our pyramid right across our strategic distribution partners, our independent agent partners.

Devin B. McGranahan: We've also focused a lot on how we get our pyramid right across our strategic distribution partners, our independent agent partners, our control distribution, which is our concept stores and our own stores. I think what you see in North America is that the team is really driving the program forward.

Speaker Change: Our control distribution, which is our concept stores and our own stores. I think what you see in North America is that team is really driving the program forward. It's part of what has helped propel our retail results to this point in time. And I would expect that will continue to help us accelerate our retail results as we drive more productivity and new productive locations, not just new locations, new productive locations across our network, both in the US and in Europe .

Devin B. McGranahan: It's part of what has helped propel our retail results to this point in time, and I would expect that it will continue to help us accelerate our retail results as we drive more productivity and new productive locations, not just new stores, but new productive locations across our network, both in the US and in Europe. By the way, you can see it in Europe, which is further along in the network management program, which I think this quarter had 3% transaction growth. Our next question comes to us from Tim Chiodo from Credit Suisse. Please unmute and ask your question. Great, thank you. I just want to circle back again on the margins.

Devin Mcgranahan: And I would expect that will continue to help us accelerate our retail results as we drive more productivity and new productive locations, not just new locations, new productive locations across our network, both in the US and in Europe. By the way, you can see it in Europe, which is further along in the network management program, which I think this quarter had 3% transaction growth.

Speaker Change: By the way, you can see it in Europe , which is further along in the network management program, which I think this quarter had 3% transaction growth.

Tim Chiorro: Our next question comes to us from Tim Chiorro from Credit Suisse.

Speaker Change: Our next question comes to us from Tim Chiodo from Credit Suisse. Please unmute and ask your question.

Matthew Cagwin: Please unmute and ask your question. Great. Thank you. I just want to circle back again on the margins. I know we dug into this a little bit, but specifically the CMT margins, they came in a little bit better despite the lesser revenue. And I just wanted to see if you could touch on again that specific for that margin, that segment what the main drivers were and what is implied for the second half of the guidance for the margin for the CMT.

Tim Chiodo: I know we dug into this a little bit, but specifically the CMT margins, they came in a little bit better despite the lesser revenue. And I just wanted to see if you could touch on that specific for that margin, that segment, what the main drivers were, and what is implied for the second half of the guidance for the margin on the CMT. Hey Tim, as you've been following us for a number of years, our margins do move around from quarter to quarter as we make investments in our product, as we roll out new partners, give incentives, and the like.

Tim Chiodo: Great, thank you. I just want to circle back again on the margins. I know we dug into this a little bit, but specifically the CMT margins, they came in a little bit better despite the lesser revenue. And I just wanted to see if you could touch on again that specific for that margin, that segment, what the main drivers were, and what is implied for the second half of the guidance for the margin for the CMT.

Matthew Cagwin: Hey, Tim, as you've been following us for a number of years, our margins do move around from quarter to quarter as we make investments in our product. As we roll out new partners, having seen us and alike, we're committed to the 19 to 21% margin, but it's hard to give you specific guidance beyond that range. Okay, thank you.

Hey Tim, as you've been following us for a number of years, our margins do move around from quarter to quarter as we make investments in our product.

Speaker Change: We roll out new partners, have incentives and the like. We're committed to the 19 to 21 percent margin, but it's hard to give you a specific guidance beyond beyond that range.

Tim Chiodo: We're committed to the 19 to 21% margin, but it's hard to give you specific guidance beyond that range. Okay, thank you. Our next question comes to us from Jason Kupferberg from Bank of America. Please unmute and ask your question.

Tim Chiodo: Okay, thank you.

Jason Cupford: Our next question comes to us from Jason Cupford from Bank of America.

Speaker Change: Our next question comes to us from Jason Kupferberg from Bank of America. Please unmute and ask your question.

Jason Cupford: Please unmute and ask your question. Hi, guys. I think you had mentioned in the Parabiemarks some calendar shift and holidays impacting the spread between digital revenue and transaction growth. You just elaborate on that and just talk about for the second half. Is that spread on the digital side? Go back more to like the 4%. We saw in the first quarter.

Matthew Cagwin: Hi, guys. I think you had mentioned in the pair of remarks some calendar shifts and holidays impacting the spread between digital revenue and transaction growth. Can you just elaborate on that and just talk about for the second half, does that spread on the digital side go back more to like the 4% we saw in the first quarter? Thanks. Hey, Jason, may or may not be known to you.

Jason Alan Kupferberg: Hi guys, I think you had mentioned in the paired remarks some calendar shifts and holidays impacting the spread between digital revenue and transaction growth. Can you just elaborate on that and just talk about for the second half does that spread on the digital side go back?

Speaker Change: More to like the 4% we saw in the first quarter. Thanks.

Matthew Cagwin: Thanks.

Matthew Cagwin: Hey, Jason. May or may not be known by any exhaustive follows for a number of years, but the way we report our transactions are based on when they're actually collected, where the counting rules drive our revenue based on when sins actually happen. So a little bit of a disconnect between the two of those. Eed moved between Q2 and Q1 this year. So is the Muslim holiday shifted that caused a little bit of a disconnect at the end of the quarter and Q1. As we talk about the prepared remarks, our belief is that we will continue to advance towards our intermediate intermediate term goal at the end of the year.

Jason Alan Kupferberg: I know you've also followed us for a number of years, but the way we report our transactions is based on when they're actually collected, where the accounting rules drive our revenue based on when sins actually happen. So there's a little bit of a disconnect between the two of those. Eid moved between Q2 and Q1 this year, so as the Muslim holiday shifted, that caused a little bit of a disconnect at the end of the quarter in Q1.

Speaker Change: Hey, Jason. May or may not be known by you. I know you've also followed us for a number of years, but the way we report our transactions are based on when they're actually collected, whereas the accounting rules drive our revenue based on when sins actually happen. So there's a little bit of a disconnect between the two of those.

Speaker Change: Eid moved between Q2 and Q1 this year. So as the Muslim holiday shifted, that caused a little bit of a disconnect at the end of the quarter in Q1.

Jason Alan Kupferberg: As we talk about the prepared remarks, our belief is that we will continue to advance towards our immediate intermediate-term goal at the end of the year that Devin talked about earlier, four to five hundred basis points. So we'll continue to move as the year progresses. Okay, and then just a follow up on the retail transaction growth. I know you said it was stable and kind of flattish year over year. Do we need it to turn positive next year to get to that 2% revenue growth target for 2025? There are multiple levers there.

Speaker Change: As we saw in the prepared remarks, our belief is that we will continue to advance towards our intermediate term goal at the end of the year, that Devin talked about earlier, four to five hundred basis points, so we'll continue to move as the year progresses.

Matthew Cagwin: How the Devin talked about earlier, four or five hundred basis points. So we'll continue to move at the year progress. Services.

Matthew Cagwin: Okay, and then just follow up on the retail transaction growth. I know you said it was stable, kind of flatish. Your year.

Speaker Change: Okay, and then just a follow up on the retail transaction growth. I know you said it was stable, kind of flattish year over year. Does it need to turn positive next year to get to that 2% revenue growth target for 2025?

Matthew Cagwin: Does it need to turn positive next year to get to that 2% revenue growth target for 2025? So, across the board, I think there's opportunities. There's levers against that 2% doesn't require retail to be positive on its own. We have room in the other places as well, but we do believe there is up to upside to our current retail. This quarter actually made progress if you pull leap. You're out of Q1.

Matthew Cagwin: We believe we have an opportunity to accelerate both our retail business, our branded digital business, as well as our white label. So across the board, I think there's opportunities, there's levers to get to that 2% doesn't require retail to be positive on its own. We have room in other areas as well.

Speaker Change: There's multiple levers there. We believe we have opportunity to accelerate both our retail business, our branded digital business.

Speaker Change: as well as our white label. So across the board, I think there's opportunities, there's levers to get to that 2% doesn't require retail to be positive on its own. We have room in the other places as well. But we do believe there is upside to our current retail this quarter actually made progress. If you pull leap, you're out of q1.

Matthew Cagwin: But we do believe there is upside to our current retail. This quarter actually made progress if you pull the leap year out of Q1. So we actually continue to make some advancements quarter over quarter if you didn't have a leap year last quarter. Our next question comes to us from Ken Suchoski from Autonomous. Please unmute and ask your question. Hey, good afternoon, everyone.

Matthew Cagwin: So we actually continued to make some advancements quarter of a quarter if you didn't have to leap your last quarter.

Speaker Change: So we actually continued to make some advancements quarter over quarter if you didn't have a leap year last quarter.

Kenneth Suchoski: Our next question comes to us from Ken Suchoski, from Autonomous. Please unmute and ask your question. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to ask about the physical retail business excluding Iraq. And I think by our estimates, it looks like FX neutral revenue growth declined. You know, mid single digits, about 5% over year this quarter. I think that was in line with last quarter. And then retail transactions XRAC increased maybe 1.5% year over year. So just wanted to confirm those numbers.

Speaker Change: Our next question comes to us from Ken Suchoski from Autonomous. Please unmute and ask your question.

Kenneth Christopher Suchoski: Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to ask you about the physical retail business, excluding IRAC. And I think, by our estimates, it looks like FX-neutral revenue growth declined, you know, mid single digits, about 5% year over year this quarter. I think that was in line with last quarter.

Kenneth Christopher Suchoski: Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to ask you about the physical retail business excluding Iraq and I think by our estimates, it looks like

Kenneth Christopher Suchoski: FX neutral revenue growth declined, you know, mid single digits about 5% year over year over this quarter. I think that was in line with last quarter.

Matthew Cagwin: And then retail transactions x IRAC increased maybe one and a half percent year over year. So just wanted to confirm those numbers. And I was wondering if you could give us a sense for how those two metrics might trend over the coming quarters. Hey, Ken, thanks for the question.

Speaker Change: and then retail transactions XRF increased maybe one and a half percent year over year. So I just wanted to confirm those numbers and I was wondering if you could give us a sense for how those two metrics might trend over the coming quarters.

Matthew Cagwin: And I was wondering if you could give us a sense for how those two metrics might trend over the coming quarters. Hey, Ken. Thanks for the question. The retail transactions are closer to zero than your calculator. You've included in there the white label business because of what we just closed. You're backing into a number that's a little off, but it's closer to flatish. But we do. I mentioned the last question. We do expect to have continued progress both in our retail and brand digital and white label business throughout the remainder of the year and going into next year.

Kenneth Christopher Suchoski: The retail transactions are closer to zero than you're calculating. You've included in there the white label business because the way we disclosed it, you're backing into a number that's a little off, but it's closer to flat. But we do, as I mentioned in the last question, expect to have continued progress both in our retail and branded digital and white label business throughout the remainder of the year and going into next year. On the revenue impact, you're much closer to the right.

Speaker Change: Hey Ken, thanks for the question. The retail transactions are closer to zero than you're calculating, you've included in there the white label business, because the way we what we disclose, you're backing into a number that's a little off, but it's closer to flattish.

Speaker Change: But we do, as I mentioned in the last question, we do expect to have continued progress both in our retail and branded digital and white label business throughout the remainder of the year and going into next year.

Matthew Cagwin: On the revenue impact, you are much closer to the right answer. Okay.

Speaker Change: On the revenue impact, you're much closer to the right answer.

Kenneth Christopher Suchoski: Okay, and then just, a follow-up on that one, then I guess, it looks like physical retail, you know, pricing, Exirac, you know, came down quite a bit, quarter of a quarter, maybe mid single digit. You know, anything to sort of call out there that's driving that, or is it, you know? I know the first quarter ended on a holiday, so I'm not sure if that impacted it at all, but I'm just curious about how we should think about that pricing going forward.

Matthew Cagwin: And then just I guess a call up on that one then I guess it looks like physical retail, you know, pricing XRAC, you know, came down quite a big quarter of a quarter, maybe mid single digits. You know, anything to sort of call out there that's driving that, or is it, you know, I know the first quarter ended on a holiday. So, not sure if that impacted it at all, but it's just, you know, how we should think about that pricing going forward. Yeah, we've not had major movement quarter of a quarter in our retail pricing.

Speaker Change: Okay, and then just, I guess, a follow-up on that one, Ben. I guess it looks like physical retail, you know, pricing, ex-Iraq, you know, came down quite a bit quarter-over-quarter, maybe mid-single digits.

Speaker Change: You know, and anything to sort of call out there that's driving that? Or is it, you know, I know the first quarter ended on a holiday, so I'm not sure if that impacted it at all. But I'm just curious how we should think about that pricing going forward.

Kenneth Christopher Suchoski: Yeah, we've not had a major movement quarter over quarter in our retail pricing. I think it's still the same white labels diluting that. As you know, white label RPTs are meaningfully lower than our branded digital business as well as our retail business. So I think it's a mixed issue there in the assumption you're making on white labels.

Matthew Cagwin: I think it's still the same white labels dilute in that. As you, as you know, white label RPTs are meaning for the lower than our branded digital business as well as our retail business. I think it's a mix issue there on the assumption you're making on white label. Okay. I think it's actually same as you may have asked last quarter or someone asked last quarter. The RPTs are relatively flat quarter and quarter. Okay.

Speaker Change: Yeah, we've not had major movement quarter over quarter in our retail pricing. I think it's still the same white labels diluting that. As you know, white label RPTs are meaningfully lower than our branded digital business as well as our retail business. I think it's a mixed issue there in the assumption you're making on white label.

Speaker Change: I think it's actually the same answer you may have asked last quarter, or someone asked last quarter. The RPTs are relatively flat quarter to quarter.

Ramsey El Asal: Thank you. Our next question comes to us from Ramsey, El Asal from Barclays. Please unmute and ask your question. All right. Thanks for taking my question. I was wondering if you could comment on the impact of Argentina inflation and currency to brand a digital revenues this quarter. It looked like there was about a 200 basis point add back. It's been zero for a little while, though I do recall in the past that you'd had a line item there before. So I'm just curious what changed in the quarter. What does macro look like down to more importantly?

Matthew Cagwin: But I think it's actually the same answer you may have asked last quarter or someone asked last quarter; the RPTs are relatively flat this quarter. Okay, thank you. Our next question comes to us from Ramsey L. Ossal from Barclays. Please unmute and ask your question. Hi, thanks for taking my question. I was wondering if you could comment on the impact of Argentina inflation and currency on branded digital revenues this quarter. It looked like there was about a 200 basis point add back.

Speaker Change: Okay, thank you. Our next question comes to us from Ramsey L. Ossal from Barclays.

Speaker Change: Please unmute and ask your question.

Speaker Change: Hi, thanks for taking my question. I was wondering if you could comment on the impact of Argentina inflation and currency to branded digital revenues this quarter. It looked like there was about a 200 basis point add back.

Matthew Cagwin: It's been zero for a little while, though I do recall in the past that you'd had a line item there before. So I'm just curious what changed in the quarter. What does macro look like down there?

Speaker Change: It's been zero for a little while, though I do recall in the past that you'd had a line item there before. So I'm just curious what changed in the quarter.

Ramsey Clark El: More importantly, what do we what should we expect in the second half in terms of that line? Hey, Ramsey, thanks for joining the call today. Yeah, this is actually the Y that's been going on for the last two years. The drivers really, as Devin talked about in the opening, we've had some really strong growth in Australia, which is driving part of that, as well as we had some FX hedges that matured this quarter that drove a little bit wider spread than we would have otherwise. Going forward, all of our forecasts are foreign currency agnostic.

Matthew Cagwin: What do we, what should we expect in the second half in terms of that, that line?

Speaker Change: What does MACRA look like down there? More importantly, what should we expect in the second half in terms of that line?

Matthew Cagwin: Hey Ramsey, thanks for joining the call today. Yeah, this is actually the wife has been in the last two years. The driver is really, Devin talked about in the opening. We've had some really strong growth in Australia, which is driving part of that as well. We had some effects, hedges, and matured this quarter that drove a little bit wider spread than we would have had otherwise. Going forward, all of our forecasts are foreign currency agnostic, so it's hard for me to really tell you what's going to happen tomorrow if I knew I might not be working here.

Matthew Cagwin: So it's hard for me to really tell you what's going to happen tomorrow if I knew I might not be working here. Got it. And then, just on the retail side, maybe an update on some of the products that you've talked about, namely Quick Resend and Remember Me. I'm just curious about the timing cadence that we should expect for rolling those products out in the months ahead. So, as you know, we launched our first Quick Resend Remember Me service. If you remember, a significant portion of our retail transactions are derived from retail customers who have transacted with us before. So expediting them through the process makes efficiency gains for our agents and a better customer experience for our customers. We launched that on our legacy point of sale in North America.

Speaker Change: Hey, Ramsey, thanks for joining the call today. Yeah, this is actually the wise has been in the last two years.

Speaker Change: The drivers really, as Devin talked about in the opening, we've had some really strong growth in Australia, which is driving part of that, as well as we had some FX hedges that matured this quarter that drove a little bit wider spread than we would have had otherwise.

Speaker Change: Going forward, all of our forecasts are foreign currency agnostic, so it's hard for me to really tell you what's going to happen tomorrow if I knew I might not be working here.

Devin Mcgranahan: And then just on the retail side, maybe an update on some of the products that you've talked about, namely Quick Resend and Remember Me, just curious what the timing cadence we should expect for rolling those products out in a month's ad. Yeah, so as you know, we launched our first quick resend, remember me, which, if you'll remember, a significant portion of our retail transactions are derived from retail customers who have transacted with us before, so expediting them through the process makes efficiency gains for our agents and a better customer experience for our customers. We launched that on our legacy point of sale in North America.

Speaker Change: Got it. And then just on the retail side, maybe an update on some of the products that you've talked about, namely Quick Resend and Remember Me. Just curious what the timing cadence we should expect for rolling those products out in the months ahead.

Speaker Change: So as you know we launched our first Quick Resend Remember Me, which

Speaker Change: If you remember, a significant portion of our retail transactions are derived from retail customers who have transacted with us before, so expediting them through the process makes efficiency gains for our agents and a better customer experience for our customers. We launched that on our legacy point of sale in North America. We then went through the rest of our point of sale experience in North America and then at the beginning of this year began rolling it out across the rest of the world, starting in the first quarter in parts of Europe and now have been expanding that going west.

Devin Mcgranahan: We then went through the rest of our point of sale experience in North America, and then at the beginning of this year begin rolling it out across the rest of the world, starting in the first quarter in parts of Europe, and now I've been expanding that going west. As you can see, you know, the impact of that is starting to show up in the transaction growth at 3 million, up almost 70% quarter over quarter. So, we expected to roll out through the rest of this year, and we'll have full network penetration of that experience across the globe by the end of this year.

Devin B. McGranahan: We then went through the rest of our point of sale experience in North America and then, at the beginning of this year, began rolling it out across the rest of the world, starting in the first quarter in parts of Europe, and now we have been expanding that, going west. As you can see, the impact of that is starting to show up in transaction growth at 3 million, up almost 70% quarter over quarter. So we expect it to roll out through the rest of this year, and we'll have full network penetration of that experience across the globe by the end of this year. Perfect.

Speaker Change: As you can see, you know, the impact of that is...

Speaker Change: starting to show up in the transaction growth at $3 million, up almost 70% quarter over quarter. So we expect it to roll out through the rest of this year, and we'll have full network penetration of that experience across the globe by the end of this year.

Unknown Attendee: Perfect.

Unknown Attendee: Thank you. Our next question comes to us from Roof is home from BMO, please unmute and ask your question. Hey, good afternoon. Thanks very much. I wanted to ask about slide 10 in your presentation, while you're showing the higher transactions per customer in your 2024 cohort. Is that something you're seeing across all geographies, and any differences you're seeing across the regions, and just how sustainable do you think that improvement is? Thank you.

Rufus Holm: Our next question comes to us from Rufus Holm from BMO. Please unmute and ask your question. Hey, good afternoon. Thanks very much.

Speaker Change: Our next question comes to us from Rufus Holm from BMO. Please unmute and ask your question.

Rufus Holm: I wanted to ask about slide 10 in your presentation where you're showing higher transactions per customer in your 2024 cohort. Is that something you're seeing across all geographies? And any differences you're seeing across the regions? And just how sustainable do you think that improvement is? Thank you.

Rufus Holm: Hey, good afternoon. Thanks very much. I wanted to ask about slide 10 in your presentation where you're showing the higher transactions per customer in your 2024 cohort.

Rufus Holm: Is that something you're seeing across all geographies and any differences you're seeing across the regions and just how sustainable do you think that improvement is? Thank you.

Devin Mcgranahan: So that improvement we think is very sustainable, and it goes to the quality of the customers that we're attracting with our new program. It has a higher percentage of payout to account customers, which have higher TPCs and higher PPCs. They also have higher long-term retention. The other thing is, as we talked about on retail with remember me and quick recent, we've adopted some of those same practices on our digital platform, which is allowing repeat customers a much easier time to conduct the same transaction. So the quick recent functionality has improved significantly. So you're seeing customers come back and do repeat transactions at a higher velocity than we have in the past.

Devin B. McGranahan: So that improvement, we think, is very sustainable, and it goes to the quality of the customers that we're attracting with our new program. It has a higher percentage of payout-to-account customers, which have higher TPCs and higher PPCs. They also have higher long-term retention.

Speaker Change: So that improvement we think is very sustainable and it goes to the quality of the customers that we're attracting with our new program.

Speaker Change: It has a higher percentage of payout-to-account customers, which have higher TPCs and higher PPCs. They also have higher long-term retention. The other thing is, as we talked about on retail with Remember Me and Quick Resend, we've adopted some of those same practices.

Devin B. McGranahan: The other thing is, as we talked about in retail with Remember Me and Quick Resend, we've adopted some of those same practices on our digital platform, which is allowing repeat customers a much easier time conducting the same transaction. So the Quick Resend functionality has improved significantly, so you're seeing customers come back and do repeat transactions at a higher rate than we have in the past. As you would expect, it varies across regions.

Speaker Change: on our digital platform, which is allowing repeat customers a much easier time to conduct the same transaction. So the quick resend functionality has improved significantly. So you're seeing customers come back and do repeat transactions at a higher velocity than we have in the past.

Devin Mcgranahan: As you could expect, it varies across regions. Our strongest performance is in North America. Asia is coming on strongly. Europe continues to improve. We've had some struggles in the Middle East, given the dynamics there and the nature of the digital model in the Middle East, which is what we call a digital master agent model, because of the license requirements.

Devin B. McGranahan: Our strongest performance is in North America, but Asia is coming on strongly. Europe continues to improve. We've had some struggles in the Middle East given, you know, the dynamics there and the nature of the digital model in the Middle East, which is what we call a digital master agent model because of the license requirements. So it's a little tougher to push through improvements and changes in that model than it is in many other parts of the rest of the world. But we have time for one final question. And that question will come from Bryan Keane from Deutsche Bank. Bryan, please unmute and ask your question. Hey guys, thanks for fitting me in.

Speaker Change: As you could expect, it varies across region, our strongest performances in North America, Asia is coming on strongly. Europe continues to improve. We've had some struggles in the Middle East given, you know, the dynamics there and

Speaker Change: The nature of the digital model in the Middle East, which is what we call a digital master agent model because of the license requirements, so it's a little tougher to push through improvements and changes in that model than it is in many other parts of the rest of the world.

Devin Mcgranahan: So it's a little tougher to push through improvements and changes in that model than it is in many other parts of the rest of the world.

Unknown Attendee: We have time for one final question. And that question will come from Bryan Keane, from Deutsche Bank. Bryan, please unmute and ask your question. Hey guys, thanks for fitting me in. Just want to ask about the World Bank and the World Bank expecting remittance growth to accelerate in the industry. Do you guys feel the same way that you expect the industry to accelerate, and what might be those drivers? So everything we're seeing has been positive for the remittance industry. As you know, you know, if you would ask us a year ago, we had some significant concerns about the effects of inflation on our customer base, which tends to be at the lower end of the social economic totem pole.

Speaker Change: We have time for one final question, and that question will come from Bryan Keane from Deutsche Bank. Bryan, please unmute and ask your question.

Bryan Connell Keane: Just want to ask about the World Bank and the World Bank expecting remittance growth to accelerate in the industry. Do you guys feel the same way that you expect the industry to accelerate, and what might those drivers be? So, everything we're seeing has been positive for the remittance industry. As you know, if you had asked us a year ago, we had some significant concerns about the effects of inflation on our customer base, which tends to be at the lower end of the socioeconomic totem pole, and the effects of inflation have an adverse effect of greater proportions on our customers than they might on others.

Bryan Connell Keane: Hey guys, thanks for fitting me in. I just want to ask about the World Bank and the World Bank expecting remittance growth.

Bryan Connell Keane: to accelerate in the industry. Do you guys feel the same way that you expect the industry to accelerate and what might be those drivers?

Speaker Change: So everything we're seeing has been positive for

Speaker Change: The remittance industry, as you know.

Speaker Change: You know, if you had asked us a year ago, we had some significant concerns about the effects of inflation on our customer base, which is

Speaker Change: tends to be at the lower end of the socioeconomic totem pole and the effects of inflation have a adverse effect of greater proportions on our customers than they might on others.

Devin Mcgranahan: And the effects of inflation have an adverse effect of greater proportions on our customers. Then they might on others. We have largely not seen that play out in most of the world where PPCs have remained consistent and TPCs, as you can see in the prepared comments, have been increasing, not decreasing. So our customer has proven exceptionally resilient in the face of the economic challenges associated with inflation, and migration trends have been steady across most of the important markets in the world. Accelerated in some places, like in the Middle East, with the construction that's been going on in Saudi Arabia and UAE and other places.

Bryan Connell Keane: We have largely not seen that play out in most of the world, where PPCs have remained consistent, and TPCs, as you can see in the prepared comments, have been increasing, not decreasing. So, our customer has proven exceptionally resilient in the face of the economic challenges associated with inflation, and migration trends have been steady across most of the important markets in the world and have accelerated in some places, like in the Middle East, with the construction that's been going on in Saudi Arabia and the UAE and other places.

Speaker Change: We have largely not seen that.

Speaker Change: play out in most of the world where PPCs have remained consistent and

Speaker Change: TPCs, as you can see in the prepared comments, have been increasing, not decreasing. So our customer has proven exceptionally resilient in the face of the economic challenges associated with inflation, and migration trends have been

Speaker Change: Steady across most of the important markets in the world and have accelerated in some places like in the Middle East with the construction that's been going on in Saudi Arabia and UAE and other places. So we generally have a positive view, as my comments indicated, at least

Bryan Connell Keane: So, we generally have a positive view, as my comments indicated, at least in the foreseeable future, call it the next 12 to 24 months, lest, you know, some other great global disaster or large war or some other thing disrupts it, but in a generally consistent macro environment, we are positive on the outlook for the industry.

Devin Mcgranahan: So we generally have a positive view, as my comments indicated, at least in the foreseeable future, call it the next 12 to 24 months, less, you know, some other great global disaster or large war or some other thing disrupts it, but any generally consistent macro environment. Positive on the outlook for the industry.

Speaker Change: in the foreseeable future, call it the next 12 to 24 months, lest, you know...

Speaker Change: Some other great global disaster or large war or some other thing disrupts it, but in a generally consistent macro environment, we are positive on the outlook for the industry.

Devin Mcgranahan: And then, as a follow-up, just thinking about, you know, your point that if you look at your data versus the World Bank that you guys are now sharing, gaining, who is the share loser now? Is that the other digital competitors, or is that more traditional banks? So again, the World Bank is not digital only. It is digital and retail MTOs and banks. So you've got a large dynamic that's going on. You've got customers switching from banks to MTOs. And within MTOs, you've got retail customers switching to digital. What I would say in general is the banks are net share losers.

Devin B. McGranahan: And then as a follow-up, just thinking about, you know, your point that if you look at your data versus the World Bank, that you guys are now the share gainers, who's the share loser now? Is that the other digital competitors? Or is that more traditional banks? Um, so again, the World Bank is not just digital; it is digital and retail, MTOs, and banks. So you've got a large dynamic that's going on.

Speaker Change: And then as a follow up, just thinking about, you know, your point that if you look at your data versus the World Bank that you guys are now share gaining, who is the share loser now? Is that the other digital competitors or is that more traditional banks?

Speaker Change: So again, the World Bank is not digital only, it is digital in retail, MTOs and banks. So you've got a large dynamic that's going on. You've got...

Devin B. McGranahan: You've got customers switching from banks to MTOs, and within MTOs, you've got retail customers switching to digital. What I would say in general is the banks are net share losers, so this is not particularly central to their business. And then second, the more marginal players, corridor specialists, undercapitalized digital players, people who have been fueled into this segment and into this industry over the last couple of years are struggling a lot more when they now begin to realize it's a fairly capital-intensive business.

Speaker Change: Customers switching from banks to MTOs, and within MTOs you've got retail customers switching to digital.

Speaker Change: What I would say, in general, is the banks are net share losers. This is not particularly central to theirs, and our traditional customer at $300 or $400 of remittance volume is generally not their target transaction. And then second, the more marginal players, corridor specialists, undercapitalized digital players, people who had been fueled into this segment and into this industry over the last couple of years.

Devin Mcgranahan: This is not particularly central to theirs and our traditional customer at three or $400 of remittance volume is generally not their target transaction. And then second, the more marginal players, corridor specialists under-capitalized digital players, people who had been fueled into this segment and into this industry over the last couple of years are struggling a lot more when they now begin to realize it's a fairly capital-intensive business. And in particular when you start migrating to pat to account where you have to pre fund in order to make it happen, it becomes even more expensive in a high interest rate environment.

Speaker Change: are struggling a lot more when they now begin to realize it's a fairly capital-intensive business.

Speaker Change: And in particular, when you start migrating to pay out to account where you have to pre-fund in order to make it happen, it becomes even more expensive in a high-interest rate environment. So the smaller, less-scale players are struggling and losing share. The banks are losing share.

Devin Mcgranahan: So the smaller, less scale players are struggling and losing share; the banks are losing share.

Unknown Attendee: Thank you for joining today's Western Union 2nd quarter 2024 Results Conference Call. We hope you have a great day. and we hope you have a great day you you

Devin B. McGranahan: And in particular, when you start migrating to pay out of account, where you have to prefund in order to make it happen, it becomes even more expensive in a high interest rate environment. So the smaller, less scale players are struggling and losing share; the banks are losing share. Thank you for joining today's Western Union second quarter 2024 results conference call. We hope you have a great day.

Speaker Change: Thank you for joining today's Western Union second quarter 2024 results conference call. We hope you have a great day.