Western Union says it will not start working with cryptocurrencies any time soon. Head of the company Hikmet Ersek believes that people prefer to use fiat instead of digital currencies, so there is no value in such integration. Ersek also thinks that central banks will never move towards recognize bitcoin as a currency.
“The consumers tell us what they want. People aren’t paying their hospital bills in cryptos” he said.
He added that central banks are skeptical about digital money as authorities wouldn’t want to give up control over their own currency in favor of cryptocurrencies.
Last December, Western Union has launched a campaign against wire transfer transactions involving digital currency exchanges. Reddit user said in a post that the company reportedly advised Kraken cryptocurrency exchange that it wouldn’t process crypto transfers since it’s against their internal guidelines.
Also in February 2018, the payment system reported testing the Ripple technology for international transfers. “Efforts are in a testing phase and not a key part of the business,” the company’s CFO Raj Agrawal said. The company hasn’t found anything yet that would equate to a “big unlock,” he added.
By Ekaterina Ulyanova