Western Union to open money transfers to Cuba from all 50 U.S. states

(Reuters) – Western Union will vastly expand a U.S. pilot program for money transfers to Cuba, it said on Thursday, opening retail locations across the 50 states and allowing for digital service through its website and mobile app.

The company, among the globe´s top providers of such services, first resumed transfers on a limited basis to the communist-run island in early January, nearly three years after the Trump administration put in place sanctions that triggered a halt in service.

The initial pilot program was based in the Greater Miami area, home to the country´s largest population of Cuban-Americans.

The new program, the company said in a statement, now includes 4,400 stores across the United States and Puerto Rico and offers multiple digital platforms for those seeking to send money to the island.

Remittances have long been a crucial source of income for Cuban families, but the need has become even more acute amid a severe economic crisis resulting from tighter U.S. sanctions, the coronavirus pandemic and an ailing tourism industry that is struggling to recover.

Trump barred U.S. companies from facilitating money transfers to Cuba through military-aligned companies identified on the U.S. “Cuba Restricted List,” a blacklist of Cuban people and entities with which U.S. companies are prohibited from doing business.

The Biden administration, which has taken some small steps to roll back some Trump era sanctions against Cuba, said last May that remittances could resume provided they used “electronic payment processors” to avoid funds going directly to the Cuban government.

Western Union said Thursday it had signed an agreement with Orbit S.A., a Cuban-based company authorized by Cuba´s Central Bank to process the transactions.

(Reporting by Dave Sherwood in Havana; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)