On a constant currency basis, third quarter revenues increased 3% compared to the prior year period. Reported revenues declined 3%, primarily due to the impact of the stronger U.S. dollar. Earnings per share increased 2% to $0.45 in the quarter.

“We delivered another good quarter and are on track with our expectations, as the business remained resilient despite geopolitical and global economic challenges,” said President and Chief Executive Officer Hikmet Ersek. “U.S. outbound money transfer provided solid results and our westernunion.com online transaction sites, which are now activated in 33 countries, once again produced strong growth.”

Ersek added, “We are also continuing to execute key strategic actions, such as launching the WU Connect platform and expanding our capabilities to transfer funds into accounts. Within our omni-channel strategy we currently have the ability to access hundreds of millions of accounts globally, adding to our distribution network of over 500,000 agent locations and 100,000 ATMs and kiosks.”

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Raj Agrawal said, “In the quarter we achieved constant currency revenue growth in each of our segments and generated strong operating margins and cash flow, which we continued to deploy for our shareholders. We are pleased to affirm the full year financial outlook, including the adjusted earnings per share outlook that was raised in July.”

In the third quarter, Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) constant currency revenues increased 3%, while reported revenues declined 3%. C2C transactions increased 2% in the quarter. C2C constant currency revenue growth was driven by westernunion.com and the U.S. outbound business. Westernunion.com C2C revenue increased 22%, or 28% constant currency, on transaction growth of 25%. Electronic channels revenue, which includes westernunion.com, account based money transfer through banks, and mobile money transfer, represented 7% of total Company revenues.

Consumer-to-Business (C2B) revenues grew 6% in the quarter, or 10% constant currency, driven by the Argentina walk-in and the U.S. electronic bill payments businesses.

Western Union Business Solutions revenues decreased 4%, or increased 6% on a constant currency basis. Constant currency growth was driven by Europe and Australia, and aided by strong sales of hedging products.

Operating margin was 21.8% for the quarter, which is consistent with the third quarter of 2014.

Earnings per share were $0.45 compared to $0.44 in the prior year period.

The Company returned $204 million to shareholders in the third quarter, consisting of $125 million of share repurchases and $79 million of dividends. Year-to-date, cash flow from operating activities totaled $804 million, with $670 million returned to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends.

2015 Full Year Outlook

The Company affirmed its full year outlook for 2015 provided on July 30, 2015:

Revenue

Low to mid-single digit constant currency revenue increase
Low to mid-single digit GAAP revenue decrease
Operating Profit Margin

Adjusted operating margin of approximately 21%
GAAP operating margin of approximately 20%
Earnings per Share

Adjusted EPS in a range of approximately $1.60 to $1.67
GAAP EPS in a range of approximately $1.55 to $1.62
Cash Flow

Cash flow from operating activities of approximately $1 billion. The Company now expects that the $100 million of anticipated final tax payments relating to the agreement announced with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in December 2011 will be paid in years subsequent to 2015.
Adjusted operating margin and EPS metrics exclude the impact of the previously announced Paymap settlement charge of $35.3 million pre-tax, or $24.2 million after tax, which occurred in the second quarter.