Western Union COWU

Western Union CO Segments Disclosure

10-KFiled Feb 20, 20266 min read

16. Segments

As further described in Note 1, the Company has classified its business into the following segments: Consumer Money Transfer and Consumer Services. Operating segments are defined as components of an enterprise that engage in business activities, about which separate financial information is available that is evaluated regularly by the Company’s Chief Operating Decision Maker (“CODM”) in allocating resources and assessing performance.

The Company's CODM is the President and Chief Executive Officer. The CODM uses segment operating income or loss to assess performance, including by comparing the results of each segment with one another, and allocate resources to the segments. This measure includes all expenses necessary to operate the segment and enables the CODM to understand segment profitability based on prior resource allocation decisions. This measure also excludes certain expenses such as exit costs, other severance, and operating expense redeployment activities which may be driven by corporate initiatives or could result in a lack of comparability if included in segment operating income.

The Consumer Money Transfer operating segment facilitates money transfers between two consumers. The segment includes five geographic regions whose functions are primarily related to generating, managing, and maintaining agent relationships and localized marketing activities. The Company includes Branded Digital transactions in its regions. By means of common processes and systems, these regions, including Branded Digital, create one interconnected global network for consumer transactions, thereby constituting one Consumer Money Transfer business and one operating segment.

The Consumer Services segment primarily includes the Company’s bill payment services, money order services, travel money services, check acceptance services, media network, prepaid cards, lending partnerships, and digital wallets.

On August 4, 2021, the Company entered into an agreement to sell its Business Solutions business, and the final closing for this transaction occurred on July 1, 2023. Accordingly, the Company no longer reports Business Solutions revenues and operating expenses after July 1, 2023.

The Company’s segments are reviewed separately below because each segment addresses a different combination of customer groups, distribution networks, and services offered. The business segment measurements provided to, and evaluated by, the Company’s CODM are computed in accordance with the following principles:

•
The accounting policies of the segments are the same as those described in the summary of significant accounting policies.
•
Corporate costs, including overhead expenses, are allocated to the segments primarily based on a percentage of the segments’ revenue compared to total revenue.
•
The CODM does not review total assets by segment and capital expenditures for purposes of assessing segment performance and allocating resources. As such, the disclosure of total assets by segment and capital expenditures have not been included below.
•
All items not included in operating income are excluded from the segments.

The following tables present the Company’s segment results for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023 (in millions):

 

 

 

Year Ended December 31, 2025

 

 

 

Consumer Money Transfer

 

 

Consumer Services

 

 

Total

 

Revenues

 

$

3,507.4

 

 

$

543.3

 

 

$

4,050.7

 

Expenses:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Direct transactional expenses(a)

 

 

1,635.9

 

 

 

147.8

 

 

 

1,783.7

 

Depreciation and amortization(b)

 

 

100.0

 

 

 

21.1

 

 

 

121.1

 

Other segment items(c)

 

 

1,096.9

 

 

 

258.5

 

 

 

1,355.4

 

Total segment operating income

 

$

674.6

 

 

$

115.9

 

 

$

790.5

 

Severance costs(d)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(15.8

)

Acquisition, separation, and integration costs(e)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(10.9

)

Amortization and impairment of acquisition-related intangible assets(f)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(3.4

)

Russia termination costs(g)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(3.1

)

Total consolidated operating income

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

$

757.3

 

 

 

 

 

Year Ended December 31, 2024

 

 

 

Consumer Money Transfer

 

 

Consumer Services

 

 

Total

 

Revenues

 

$

3,798.0

 

 

$

411.7

 

 

$

4,209.7

 

Expenses:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Direct transactional expenses(a)

 

 

1,731.0

 

 

 

128.8

 

 

 

1,859.8

 

Depreciation and amortization(b)

 

 

99.2

 

 

 

17.1

 

 

 

116.3

 

Other segment items(c)

 

 

1,230.4

 

 

 

213.5

 

 

 

1,443.9

 

Total segment operating income

 

$

737.4

 

 

$

52.3

 

 

$

789.7

 

Redeployment program costs(h)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(41.4

)

Severance costs(d)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(1.2

)

Acquisition, separation, and integration costs(e)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(4.1

)

Amortization and impairment of acquisition-related intangible assets(f)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2.4

)

Russia asset impairments and termination costs(g)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(14.8

)

Total consolidated operating income

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

$

725.8

 

 

 

 

 

Year Ended December 31, 2023

 

 

 

Consumer Money Transfer

 

 

Consumer Services

 

 

Business Solutions(i)

 

 

Total

 

Revenues

 

$

4,005.0

 

 

$

322.3

 

 

$

29.7

 

 

$

4,357.0

 

Expenses:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Direct transactional expenses(a)

 

 

1,842.4

 

 

 

78.1

 

 

 

6.8

 

 

 

1,927.3

 

Depreciation and amortization(b)

 

 

97.2

 

 

 

9.9

 

 

 

—

 

 

 

107.1

 

Other segment items(c)

 

 

1,314.6

 

 

 

141.8

 

 

 

19.2

 

 

 

1,475.6

 

Total segment operating income

 

$

750.8

 

 

$

92.5

 

 

$

3.7

 

 

$

847.0

 

Redeployment program costs(h)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(29.5

)

Total consolidated operating income

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

$

817.5

 

 

 

(a)
Direct transactional expenses include commissions to agents, bank fees, credit and non-credit losses, and other variable expenses.
(b)
Depreciation and amortization excludes amortization of capitalized contract costs paid to agents and partners, as this amortization is recorded as commissions to agents and partners and is therefore included in direct transactional expenses. Amortization of capitalized contract costs included within direct transactional expenses in the Consumer Money Transfer segment was $44.3 million, $62.8 million, and $76.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023, respectively.
(c)
Other segment items primarily consists of salaries and benefits, professional services, equipment and software expenses, advertising costs, and lease and facilities costs.
(d)
Represents severance costs not related to acquisition, separation, and integration activities, which have been excluded from the segments as the CODM excludes severance in making operating decisions, including allocating resources to the Company's segments. Prior to the fourth quarter of 2024, these severance costs were included in the redeployment program costs line item, and therefore, severance costs have been consistently excluded from segment operating income in the tables above.
(e)
Represents the impact from expenses incurred in connection with the Company's acquisition and divestiture activity, including for the review and closing of these transactions, and integration costs directly related to the Company’s acquisitions, such as severance and consulting costs. Beginning in 2024, the Company changed its segment reporting methodology to no longer allocate these costs to its segments. These costs were previously allocated entirely to Consumer Services while it was called Other, and the amount included in the Consumer Services segment was immaterial for the year ended December 31, 2023.
(f)
Represents the non-cash amortization and impairment of acquired intangible assets in connection with recent business acquisitions.
(g)
Where indicated, represents asset impairments related to the Company's assets in Russia and the costs associated with operating the Russian entity. While the Company had previously made a decision to suspend its operations in Russia, in the third quarter of 2024, the Company decided to pursue either liquidating or selling the Russian assets, which triggered a review of the carrying value of the assets. During 2025, the Company signed a definitive sale agreement, as amended, which is subject to regulatory approvals.
(h)
Represented severance, expenses associated with streamlining the Company's organizational and legal structure, and other expenses associated with the Company's program which redeployed investment and expenses in the Company's cost base through optimizations in vendor management, real estate, marketing, and people strategy, as previously announced in October 2022. Expenses incurred under the program also included non-cash impairments of operating lease ROU assets and property and equipment.
(i)
On August 4, 2021, the Company entered into an agreement to sell its Business Solutions business. The sale was completed with the final closing on July 1, 2023.

 

For all of the items excluded from the Company’s segment operating income results above, the expenses were not included in the measurement of segment operating income provided to the CODM for purposes of performance assessment and resource allocation.

The geographic split of revenue below is based upon the country where the transaction is initiated with 100% of the revenue allocated to that country. Long-lived assets, consisting of property and equipment, net, are presented based upon the location of the assets.

Based on the method used to attribute revenue between countries described in the paragraph above, each individual country outside the United States accounted for less than 10% of consolidated revenue for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023, respectively. In addition, each individual agent or customer accounted for less than 10% of consolidated revenue during these periods.

Information concerning principal geographic areas for Revenue was as follows (in millions):

 

 

 

Year Ended December 31,

 

 

 

2025

 

 

2024

 

 

2023

 

United States

 

$

1,402.6

 

 

$

1,536.9

 

 

$

1,507.9

 

International

 

 

2,648.1

 

 

 

2,672.8

 

 

 

2,849.1

 

Total

 

$

4,050.7

 

 

$

4,209.7

 

 

$

4,357.0

 

 

Information concerning principal geographic areas for long-lived assets, including ROU assets, was as follows (in millions):

 

 

 

December 31,

 

 

2025

 

 

2024

 

 

2023

 

United States

 

$

119.1

 

 

$

93.0

 

 

$

111.6

 

International

 

 

171.1

 

 

 

152.3

 

 

 

106.4

 

Total

 

$

290.2

 

 

$

245.3

 

 

$

218.0

 

Historical Timeline

Fiscal YearFiled
2025Feb 20, 2026Showing above
2024Feb 20, 2025
2023Feb 22, 2024
2022Feb 23, 2023
2021Feb 24, 2022
2020Feb 19, 2021
2019Feb 20, 2020
2018Feb 21, 2019
2017Feb 22, 2018
2016Feb 22, 2017
2015Feb 19, 2016

About Segments Disclosures

Segment disclosures break a company into its reportable operating units, revealing revenue, profit, and asset allocation that consolidated financial statements obscure. Under ASC 280, segments must match how the chief operating decision maker views the business, providing a window into internal management structure and resource allocation priorities.

Key signals: compare segment margins to identify which units drive profitability and which destroy value. Watch for changes in the number of reportable segments — segment aggregation or disaggregation often coincides with strategic shifts or attempts to obscure declining performance. Intersegment elimination patterns reveal internal pricing practices. The reconciliation between segment totals and consolidated figures exposes corporate overhead allocation and unallocated items. Geographic revenue concentration highlights regulatory and currency exposure. Compare segment-level capital expenditure against segment revenue to assess where management is investing for future growth versus harvesting existing assets.

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