Western Union Restores Remittance Service from US to Cuba

Western Union, the world's leading remittance service provider, in coordination with its processing partner Orbit S.A., announced the resumption of its remittance services from the United States to Cuba, effective immediately.

In February this year, Western Union said that its local service system had collapsed due to technical issues with the processing of transactions in Cuba, and said the outage only affected the Caribbean island nation.

With services now restored, Western Union customers can once again send money from any U.S. retail location, WesternUnion.com, or the Western mobile app to their close family members in Cuba. The recipients must have bank and debit card accounts at the following banks in Cuba: Banco Popular de Ahorro, Banco Metropolitano S.A., and Banco de Credito y Comercio (Bandec).

It is important to note that there are certain limitations on Western Union's money transfers from the United States to Cuba. These include:

• ​Funds can only be received into bank accounts and debit cards;

• The service is limited to consumer money transfers;

• The service is available only to receivers with Carnet de Identidad IDs;

• United States customers can remit up to USD 2,000.00 per transaction by presenting valid government-issued identification;

• Deposits to Freely Convertible Currency (MLC) accounts are available in U.S. dollars only.