Western Union has opened a technology centre in Pune, India, employing more than 1000 staffers working on areas such as robotics, machine learning and biometrics.
The 125,000 square feet Western Union Technology Engineering Centre (WUTEC) will act as the company's innovation and engineering hub in the region, a remittance hotspot, with India alone receiving an estimated $63 billion in 2016.
Western Union says that the new centre is part of a broader fintech strategy as it seeks to establish itself as a key money moving player in the new digital era.
Hikmet Ersek, president and CEO, Western Union, says: "Innovation is hard wired in our DNA. As the company that invented the concept of digitizing money, Western Union is uniquely positioned at the intersection of money and technology.
"WUTEC India will join our other key technology centers across the world to expand the reach of our omni-channel platform, integrating our digital efforts with our iconic physical agent network to serve a vast global customer base."