Western Union, the transnational company specialized in sending money, reported this week that it will begin to return the money sent to Cuba through remittances, since it could not be delivered due to the technical problems experienced by the island’s banks in the last days.
Brad Jones, director of communications for the company, told the independent media 14 intervene that Western Union has begun the task of contacting the senders affected by the interruption of the remittance service, to propose a refund of the money.
“While services are temporarily suspended, we are working to resume operations as soon as possible,” the official added via email.
In that sense, he trusts that the problems will be resolved soon, thus denying that there is going to be wait until April to resume sending remittancesas indicated by the independent media in previous days.
“Western Union is experiencing technical difficulties in the processing portion of our operations that have caused a temporary suspension of services between the US and Cuba. The company is supporting its counterpart [la financiera cubana Orbit] to resume services between the two countries as soon as possible,” the letter added.
These statements would coincide with those made by the state-owned Fincimex this Friday, February 9, which ensure that the island’s banks They were already beginning to gradually restore the remittance delivery service.
Return of Western Union to Cuba
It is important to remember that the company left Cuba almost three years ago, this after the United States implemented sanctions on its partner Fincimex, however, the company established a pilot plan to restore money transferalthough this is now done exclusively through bank transfers.
The first shipments through this modality were made at the beginning of 2023, when the option was enabled in twenty selected locations in South Florida.
In this way, recipients in Cuba can receive money on their magnetic cards, although, due to the shortage of foreign currency on the Island, they cannot have the dollars in cash.
Customers must withdraw this money at ATMs that dispense Cuban pesos (CUP) at a rate of 120 CUP for each USD, a very low price compared to the already 300 CUP that this currency reached in the informal currency market.
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