The Western Union Direct-to-Bank service offers account payout options for receivers. China is the newest addition—customers there can now receive money into their bank accounts from the westernunion.com site in the U.K. Western Union money transfers, sent through Direct-to-Bank, can be directed to most bank accounts in China. This service will be extended to additional sending countries over the next few months.

Customers can also now send money to bank accounts in Canada via this service for the first time on westernunion.com. With this latest digital deployment, customers can send money through westernunion.com from 23 countries into bank accounts in up to 46 countries depending on country-specific regulations.

The service is also available to consumers at select Agent locations in 30 countries. The company plans to expand the availability of the Direct-to-Bank service to more Agent locations in more countries in 2013.

"This latest digital expansion of our Direct-to-Bank service marks another successful buildup to global Agent network and our goal of offering consumers more ways to get money to more places," said Khalid Fellahi, senior vice president and general manager, Western Union Digital. "This service is a win-win - consumers like it because it's convenient and easy to use, and it allows us to build even deeper relationships with existing customers and attract new ones."

Western Union Digital's core customer is the global citizen - someone who has connections and roots in more than one country. This large and growing segment represents an estimated 215 million people who live outside their countries of birth and send money back to their home countries1. Large portions of this customer segment are banked and frequently send money to their friends and family for financial support and the Western Union® Direct-to-Bank service helps address their needs.