西聯匯款 (WU) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to The Western Union second-quarter 2024 results conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tom Hadley, Vice President of Investor Relations. Tom, please go ahead.

您好，歡迎參加西聯匯款 2024 年第二季業績電話會議。（操作員指示）請注意，該事件正在被記錄。現在，我想將會議交給投資者關係副總裁湯姆哈德利 (Tom Hadley)。湯姆，請說。

Thank you. On today's call, we will discuss the company's second-quarter 2024 results, and then we will take your questions. The slides that accompany this call and webcast can be found at westernunion.com under the Investor Relations tab and will remain available after the call. Additional operational statistics have been provided in supplemental tables with our press release. Joining me on the call today is our CEO, Devin McGranahan, and our CFO, Matt Cagwin.

謝謝。在今天的電話會議上，我們將討論公司 2024 年第二季的業績，然後回答您的問題。本次電話會議和網路廣播的幻燈片可在 westernunion.com 的「投資者關係」標籤下找到，並將在電話會議結束後繼續提供。我們在新聞稿中的補充表格中提供了額外的營運統計數據。今天與我一起參加電話會議的還有我們的執行長 Devin McGranahan 和財務長 Matt Cagwin。

Today's call is being recorded, and our comments include forward-looking statements. Please refer to the cautionary language in the earnings release and in Western Union's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the 2023 Form 10-K for additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. During the call, we will discuss some items that do not conform generally accepted accounting principles. We have reconciled those items to the most comparable GAAP measures in our earnings release attached to our Form 8-K as well as on our website, westernunion.com under the Investor Relations section. I will now turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Devin McGranahan.

今天的電話會議正在錄音，我們的評論包括前瞻性陳述。有關可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述存在重大差異的因素的更多信息，請參閱收益報告中以及西聯匯款向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件（包括 2023 年 10-K 表）中的警示性用語。在通話中，我們將討論一些不符合公認會計原則的項目。我們已將這些項目與 8-K 表附帶的收益報告中以及我們網站 westernunion.com 投資者關係部分中最可比較的 GAAP 指標進行協調。現在我將把電話轉給我們的執行長 Devin McGranahan。

Good afternoon, and welcome to Western Union's second-quarter 2024 financial results conference call. Today, we reported another quarter of improving revenue growth as we continue to implement our Evolve 2025 strategy focused on returning Western Union to a market competitive position. Over the last two years, we have been driving meaningful improvements in our customer and agent experiences and this quarter's results demonstrate that our efforts are working. Consumer money transfer transactions grew at 5% in the quarter, excluding Iraq, a continuation of the mid-single-digit trends we have seen for the last four quarters.

下午好，歡迎參加西聯匯款 2024 年第二季財務業績電話會議。今天，我們報告了另一個季度的收入成長改善，我們繼續實施我們的「發展 2025」策略，重點是讓西聯匯款恢復市場競爭地位。在過去的兩年裡，我們一直在推動客戶和代理商體驗的有意義的改善，本季的結果表明我們的努力正在發揮作用。本季（伊拉克除外）消費者匯款交易成長了 5％，延續了過去四個季度中等個位數的趨勢。

This continued performance on transaction growth highlights the durability of the improvements we have made. For context, excluding the COVID growover period, this is the first time we have seen four consecutive quarters of mid-single-digit transaction growth since 2018. We continue to believe that the consistent and sustainable transaction growth is the best indicator of the future health of our business. In addition to maintaining our transaction momentum this quarter, we continued to make progress in reducing the spread between transaction growth and revenue growth.

交易量的持續成長凸顯了我們所做改進的持久性。就背景而言，除去 COVID 增長期，這是我們自 2018 年以來首次看到連續四個季度實現中等個位數的交易增長。我們始終相信，持續的交易成長是我們業務未來健康狀況的最佳指標。除了本季保持交易勢頭外，我們還在縮小交易成長與收入成長之間的差距方面繼續取得進展。

As we have previously discussed, closing this gap towards our long-term goal of 200 to 300 basis points is a priority. For total consumer money transfer, we improved the spread between transaction growth and adjusted revenue growth by approximately 100 basis points compared to the first quarter when excluding Iraq, with our retail business leading the improvement. The highlight of the quarter was achieving positive adjusted revenue growth for the first time since 2021 when excluding Iraq. This milestone gives us confidence that we are well on our way to returning the business to sustainable, profitable revenue growth as we continue to report solid transaction trends in both our retail and our digital businesses, narrowing of the revenue to transaction spread and now double-digit revenue growth in our Consumer Services segment.

正如我們之前所討論的，縮小這一差距，實現我們 200 至 300 個基點的長期目標，是當務之急。就總消費者匯款而言，與不包括伊拉克的第一季相比，我們將交易成長與調整後收入成長之間的差距縮小了約 100 個基點，其中零售業務引領了這一改善。本季的亮點是自 2021 年以來（不包括伊拉克）首次實現調整後收入正成長。這個里程碑讓我們有信心，我們正在順利實現業務​​可持續、盈利的收入增長，因為我們繼續報告零售和數位業務的穩健交易趨勢，收入與交易價差縮小，現在翻了一番消費者服務部門的收入實現了數字增長。

For the quarter, our revenue reached $1.70 billion, reflecting a 7% decrease on an adjusted basis. Excluding Iraq, our adjusted revenue growth is positive in the second quarter for the first time since 2021. Earnings per share came in strong at $0.44 or down $0.07 relative to a year ago, which benefited meaningfully from higher revenue and operating profits from Iraq. Matt will discuss our financial results in more detail and provide an update on our 2024 outlook later in this call.

本季度，我們的營收達到 17 億美元，經調整後下降 7%。除伊拉克外，我們第二季的調整後營收成長自 2021 年以來首次實現正成長。每股收益強勁成長至 0.44 美元，較去年同期下降 0.07 美元，主要得益於伊拉克的收入和營業利潤增加。馬特將在稍後的電話會議中更詳細地討論我們的財務業績，並提供我們 2024 年展望的最新資訊。

Now switching briefly to the macro. In late June, the World Bank released its Semiannual Migration and Development Brief, which provided a basis for estimating remittance volumes over the next couple of years and highlighted the fact that Western Union has begun gaining share again in 2023. Previously, we have been losing market share to aggressive competitors in many parts of the world. With the implementation of our Evolve 2025 strategy, I am pleased to say we are now a market share gainer again.

現在簡要切換到巨集。6 月底，世界銀行發布了《半年度移民與發展簡報》，為估算未來幾年的匯款量提供了依據，並強調西聯匯款的份額將在 2023 年再次開始增加。此前，我們在世界許多地方的市場份額一直被強勁的競爭對手蠶食。隨著我們 Evolve 2025 策略的實施，我很高興地說我們現在的市佔率再次增加了。

Considering our market share is in the low teens, we believe we still have significant room to continue to grow. The World Bank's current economic outlook is for north of 3% principal growth for both this year and next. And with our recent share gain performance, we believe we can continue to see principal growth of mid-single digits or better for Western Union, excluding Iraq. Additionally, and contrary to the general market sentiment, the World Bank data would indicate pricing increased on an aggregate basis year-over-year.

考慮到我們的市場份額仍處於較低水平，我們相信我們仍然有很大的成長空間。世界銀行目前對經濟的預測是，今年和明年的經濟成長率都將超過3%。而且憑藉我們近期的股價上漲表現，我們相信西聯匯款（伊拉克除外）的本金成長率可以繼續維持在中個位數甚至更高。此外，與整體市場情緒相反，世界銀行的數據顯示，整體價格較去年同期上漲。

Even with increased growth in digital money transfer services, the global average cost to send remittances increased. This is supportive of our belief that higher interest rates are forcing more rational competition and driving out marginal players who may have been making uneconomic business decisions. So far this year, we have seen multiple players exit the remittance space. We have also seen others raise prices as they strive for greater profitability and have seen several subscale players seek M&A opportunities in furtherance of increased scale and competitiveness.

即使數位匯款服務成長迅速，全球匯款的平均成本仍在增加。這支持了我們的信念：更高的利率正在迫使更理性的競爭，並驅逐那些可能做出不經濟商業決策的邊緣參與者。今年到目前為止，我們已經看到多家公司退出匯款領域。我們也看到其他公司為了爭取更大的利潤而提高價格，並看到一些規模較小的公司尋求併購機會，以進一步擴大規模和競爭力。

As a point of reference, in the second quarter, we saw net new independent agent activations in the US, up nearly 50% year-over-year. And as the year progresses, we expect to see a similar dynamic in other parts of the world as smaller scale players are being forced to improve profitability or exit the market entirely. In addition, banks still hold a substantial share of the global market and continue to provide the pricing umbrella under which all MTOs compete. With the World Bank estimating that the average cost to send a remittance through bank channels globally is roughly 12%.

作為參考，在第二季度，我們看到美國淨新增獨立代理商活化量年增近 50％。隨著時間的推移，我們預計世界其他地區也會出現類似的動態，規模較小的參與者被迫提高獲利能力或完全退出市場。此外，銀行仍佔據全球市場的巨大份額，並繼續為所有MTOs競爭提供定價保護傘。根據世界銀行估計，全球透過銀行管道匯款的平均成本約為 12%。

Additionally, banks can take multiple days or more to complete a transaction, while Western Union provides near real-time payouts to over 100 countries across the world. Over the last two years, we have made significant progress on improving our retail operations, updating our digital platforms, elevating our customer and agent experiences and enhancing our overall value proposition in the marketplace. This focus is leading to the improving revenue growth we reported today. And while we have made substantial progress, we do believe there is still meaningful opportunities to continue to improve.

此外，銀行可能需要數天甚至更長時間才能完成交易，而西聯匯款則向全球 100 多個國家提供近乎即時的支付。在過去的兩年裡，我們在改善零售業務、更新數位平台、提升客戶和代理商體驗以及增強我們在市場上的整體價值主張方面取得了重大進展。這一重點推動了我們今天報告的收入成長。儘管我們已經取得了實質進展，但我們確實相信仍有繼續改進的重要機會。

As we discussed at our 2022 Investor Day, returning our digital business to double-digit growth is a key priority of the organization and is essential to driving top line revenue growth for the overall company. Over the past year, we have been improving the effectiveness of our marketing by cost effectively increasing top-of-funnel traffic in our digital properties around the globe. These changes have begun to take hold and as an example, in the final month of the quarter, we saw visits to our US sites up 20% year-over-year. In addition to driving traffic at the top of the funnel, we have also made meaningful progress in simplifying the customer journey and improving our funnel conversion rates.

正如我們在 2022 年投資者日所討論的那樣，讓我們的數位業務恢復兩位數的成長是公司的首要任務，對於推動整個公司的營收成長至關重要。在過去的一年裡，我們透過以經濟有效的方式增加全球數位資產的漏斗頂端流量，提高了我們的行銷效果。這些變化已經開始發揮作用，例如，在本季度的最後一個月，我們發現美國網站的訪問量比去年同期增長了 20％。除了推動漏斗頂端的流量之外，我們還在簡化客戶旅程和提高漏斗轉換率方面取得了有意義的進展。

As part of that process, we have simplified the branded digital customer profile creation. We have reduced the steps required for a customer to complete a transaction and have modernized our user interface and moved from a multipage transaction funnel to a single-page modular view. These improvements have led to a 13% increase in conversion rates and have contributed to the double-digit transaction growth that we achieved in the second quarter even in the face of a much harder comparison as we lapped our double-digit transaction growth in this quarter last year. In addition to the improvements in traffic and conversion, we have also begun using machine learning algorithms to test our marketing messages, page layouts and landing pages.

作為流程的一部分，我們簡化了品牌數位客戶資料的創建。我們減少了客戶完成交易所需的步驟，並使我們使用者介面現代化，從多頁交易管道轉變為單頁模組化視圖。這些改進使轉換率提高了 13%，並推動我們在第二季度實現了兩位數的交易增長，儘管我們在本季度實現了兩位數的交易增長，但面臨的比較困難得多去年。除了流量和轉換率的提高之外，我們還開始使用機器學習演算法來測試我們的行銷訊息、頁面佈局和登陸頁面。

These algorithms run multivariant testing in real time and steer traffic to those variants with the highest degree of success which should help drive continued improvements in coming quarters. At the start of our efforts, there was some concern that we would only acquire price-sensitive bonus or offer seekers and thus dilute the quality of our existing customer acquisition efforts. I am very pleased to report that concern has not materialized. If we look at cohort level transactions per customer, we continue to see steady improvements in performance with 2024 cohorts performing meaningfully better than 2023 and the 2023 cohorts performing meaningfully better than 2022.

這些演算法即時運行多變量測試並將流量引導至成功率最高的變量，這將有助於推動未來幾季的持續改進。在我們開始努力的時候，有人擔心我們只會獲得對價格敏感的獎金或優惠尋求者，從而削弱我們現有客戶獲取工作的品質。我很高興地報告，這項擔憂並未成為現實。如果我們查看每位客戶的群組層級交易，我們會繼續看到績效穩定提升，其中2024 年群組的表現明顯優於2023 年群組，而2023 年群組的表現明顯優於2022 年群組。

The charts on the screen represent three and six month transactions per customer post-acquisition. We chose these specific charts to allow you to see the performance of our most recently acquired cohorts, but the 12-month charts show a very similar performance trend. As I have discussed before, Australia has been at the center of our efforts to turn around our digital business. This is a market that is highly digitized and where we first launched our new next-generation digital app roughly two years ago.

螢幕上的圖表代表了每個客戶獲取後三個月和六個月的交易情況。我們選擇這些特定的圖表是為了讓您了解我們最近獲得的群體的表現，但 12 個月的圖表顯示出非常相似的表現趨勢。正如我之前所討論的，澳洲一直是我們扭轉數位業務的努力的中心。這是一個高度數位化的市場，大約兩年前我們首次推出了我們的新一代數位應用程式。

At the time of the launch, we were shrinking transactions at 5% and revenue was declining in the high single digits. Since the launch of our new platform, we have continued to iterate from a technological standpoint with the goal of creating a best-in-class user experience, and I feel we are well on our way. Australia now has a 20 percentage point higher conversion than any other country in our APAC region, and it has some of the highest LTV to CAC ratios we see anywhere among our significant digital countries. In the most recent quarter, Australia digital transactions grew at 30% with 14% revenue growth and we expect that spread to continue to close in the back half of the year as we anniversary some of the pricing initiatives we launched with our new go-to-market strategy in Australia in mid-2023.

在推出時，我們的交易量縮減了 5%，收入也以個位數下降。自從我們的新平台推出以來，我們一直在從技術角度進行迭代，目標是創造一流的用戶體驗，我覺得我們已經在路上了。目前，澳洲的轉換率比我們亞太地區的任何其他國家都高出 20 個百分點，且其 LTV 與 CAC 比率在我們重要的數位國家中名列前茅。在最近一個季度，澳洲的數位交易成長了 30%，收入成長了 14%，我們預計，隨著我們推出一些新的定價計劃，這一差距將在今年下半年繼續縮小 -2023 年中期在澳洲。制定市場策略。

All of these changes have enabled us to achieve the 12-plus percent branded digital transaction growth for five quarters in a row. And I believe that they are durable and sustainable improvements. The good news is that as we continue to move forward, we believe we still have significant opportunity in many parts of the world for further improvements across our marketing effectiveness, funnel conversion and customer retention. Now on to retail. Last year, we introduced several point-of-sale improvements, including remember me, quick resend, and one-step refund to improve our customer and agent experiences.

所有這些變化使得我們連續五個季度實現品牌數位交易12％以上的成長。我相信，這些都是持久、可持續的改進。好消息是，隨著我們不斷前進，我們相信在世界許多地方我們仍然有很大的機會進一步提高我們的行銷效果、通路轉換率和客戶保留率。現在談零售。去年，我們推出了多項銷售點改進，包括記住我、快速重新發送和一步退款，以改善我們的客戶和代理體驗。

We had received feedback that our transactions took too long and required too much repeat information from our customers relative to our competitors. I am happy to report that in the second quarter, we processed almost three million transactions using Quick Resend, which is up roughly 70% sequentially compared to the first quarter. We continue to expand the rollout of Quick Resend to allow our customers and our agents in other regions of the world to experience the speed and convenience that we have now had available in North America for a little over a year. In addition to Quick Resend, we have been expanding our pay-in methods at the retail point of sale.

我們收到回饋稱，與競爭對手相比，我們的交易耗時太長，並且需要客戶重複提供太多資訊。我很高興地報告，在第二季度，我們使用 Quick Resend 處理了近 300 萬筆交易，與第一季相比環比增長了約 70%。我們將繼續擴大「快速重新發送」服務的推廣，以便我們的客戶和世界其他地區的代理商能夠體驗到我們在北美地區推出的一年多來的速度和便利性。除了快速重新發送之外，我們也一直在擴展零售銷售點的支付方式。

Specifically, we have added debit card acceptance, which we have been rolling out across Europe over the last year, with now a planned launch in the US in the third quarter of this year. We are also expanding and driving efficiencies in our account payout network across the globe, which is being used more and more in our retail setting. Retail initiative, paid out to account transactions have accelerated significantly, and in the second quarter, grew at over 30% year-over-year. Our goal with our account payout network is to provide speed, reliability, transparency and lower cost options for our customers.

具體來說，我們增加了簽帳卡接受功能，去年我們已經在歐洲推出該功能，目前計劃於今年第三季在美國推出。我們也在全球擴大並提高帳戶支付網路的效率，該網路在我們的零售環境中得到越來越多的應用。零售主動支付帳戶交易速度大幅加快，第二季年增超過 30%。我們的帳戶支付網路的目標是為客戶提供速度、可靠性、透明度和更低成本的選擇。

In a relatively significant strategic shift, we have now become more focused on end-to-end customer experience instead of absolute endpoint growth across our payout network. To achieve this goal, we are increasing the number of direct connections we have with banks, wallets, and real-time payout networks instead of relying on aggregators. A great example is our recent enablement of our own Western Union International Bank to SEPA in Europe, which will result in increased speed, transparency, and we believe close to $0.5 million of cost savings annually versus our prior approach through an aggregator. Our goal is to meet our customers' needs by building the broadest array of funding and payout options regardless of channel.

在一個相對重大的策略轉變中，我們現在更加關注端到端的客戶體驗，而不是整個支付網路的絕對端點成長。為了實現這一目標，我們正在增加與銀行、錢包和即時支付網路的直接連接數量，而不是依賴聚合器。一個很好的例子是我們最近將自己的西聯國際銀行納入歐洲的 SEPA，這將提高速度和透明度，我們相信，與先前通過聚合器的方法相比，每年可節省近 50 萬美元的成本。我們的目標是透過建立最廣泛的融資和支付選項（不受通路限制）來滿足客戶的需求。

Lastly, I would like to take a minute to discuss our Consumer Services segment. In previous calls, we have talked about how retail money order and bill payments have been the largest two businesses within consumer services and the biggest drivers of growth over the last couple of years. We have also now made it a goal to grow this segment of our business double digits annually. And after a slower start to the year, I am pleased to report we generated 14% adjusted revenue growth in the second quarter.

最後，我想花一點時間討論我們的消費者服務部門。在先前的電話會議中，我們討論過零售匯票和帳單支付如何成為過去幾年消費者服務領域最大的兩項業務以及最大的成長動力。我們現在也設定了目標，要使這個業務領域每年實現兩位數的成長。在經歷了今年開局放緩之後，我很高興地報告，我們在第二季度實現了 14% 的調整後收入成長。

While we do expect retail money order and bill payments to grow, we believe much of the future incremental growth within consumer services will come from products and services we have recently launched or expanded in the last 18 months, services like prepaid debit cards, foreign exchange, media networks and the ancillary revenue streams associated with our digital wallets. In the quarter, we continued to see solid growth in retail money order and our ForEx business in Europe is benefiting from a robust travel season. As we expand our controlled distribution strategy of owned and concept stores, we will add additional products and services to our traditional cross-border money transfer offering.

雖然我們確實預期零售匯票和帳單支付將會成長，但我們相信未來消費者服務的大部分增量成長將來自我們在過去 18 個月內推出或擴展的產品和服務，例如預付借記卡、外匯、媒體網路以及與我們的數位錢包相關的輔助收入來源。本季度，我們繼續看到零售匯票的穩健成長，並且我們在歐洲的外匯業務受益於旺盛的旅遊季節。隨著我們擴大自有店和概念店的受控分銷策略，我們將在傳統的跨境匯款產品中添加更多產品和服務。

These services not only add convenience and accessibility for our customers, but also improve the economics of our retail footprint. We currently offer bill payments or retail ForEx in nearly a dozen countries around the world, and we expect to continue to expand that list in the coming years. As we look to fulfill our mission of providing accessible financial services to the aspiring populations of the world, we will continue to look for ways to provide our customers with access to the financial products and services they need for their lives. Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about our market opportunities and the progress we are making on delivering our strategic initiatives.

這些服務不僅為我們的客戶增加了便利性和可及性，而且還提高了我們的零售足跡的經濟效益。我們目前在全球近十幾個國家提供帳單支付或零售外匯服務，我們預計在未來幾年將繼續擴大這項名單。當我們履行向全世界有抱負的人們提供便捷金融服務的使命時，我們將繼續尋找方法，為客戶提供他們生活所需的金融產品和服務。展望未來，我們對我們的市場機會和我們在實施戰略計劃方面所取得的進展仍然持樂觀態度。

We are pleased with the underlying trajectory of our business driven by improved transaction trends across both our digital and our retail businesses, and we expect to continue improving top line revenue as a result. I remain confident that we have the right strategy, the right capabilities, the right team and the right mindset to achieve our Evolve 2025 goals. Thank you for joining the call today. I will now turn the call over to Matt to discuss our financial results in more detail.

我們對業務的基本發展軌跡感到滿意，這得益於我們的數位業務和零售業務交易趨勢的改善，我們預計營業收入將繼續提高。我始終相信，我們擁有正確的策略、正確的能力、正確的團隊和正確的心態來實現我們的 Evolve 2025 目標。感謝您今天的電話會議。現在我將把電話轉給馬特，更詳細地討論我們的財務表現。

Thank you, Devin, and good afternoon, everyone. I look forward to sharing a bit more on our 2024 second quarter results and our financial outlook. Adjusted revenue was $1.073 billion, which was down 7% due to the Iraq growover. As we indicated in the past year, Iraq's revenue has been lumpy and uncertain.

謝謝你，德文，大家下午好。我期待分享更多有關我們 2024 年第二季業績和財務前景的資訊。調整後收入為 10.73 億美元，由於伊拉克擴張而下降了 7%。正如我們在過去一年指出的那樣，伊拉克的收入一直不穩定且不確定。

In the second quarter of 2023, we earned $118 million in revenue from Iraq versus $34 million in the second quarter of this year. This decline negatively affected adjusted revenue by seven percentage points; whereas excluding Iraq from both periods, adjusted revenue would have been slightly positive for the first time since 2021, which is several quarters earlier than we anticipated when we launched our Evolve 2025 strategy. We are pleased with the steady progress in adjusted revenue ex Iraq, improving 500 basis points over the past year. Adjusted operating margins was 19% compared to 21.8% last year, with the decrease primarily related to elevated Iraq revenues last year and foreign exchange volatility in the current period.

2023 年第二季度，我們從伊拉克獲得了 1.18 億美元的收入，而今年第二季度的收入為 3,400 萬美元。這一下降對調整後收入產生了 7 個百分點的負面影響；而如果將伊拉克業務從這兩個時期中剔除，調整後收入將自 2021 年以來首次略微為正，這比我們啟動 Evolve 2025 戰略時預期的要早幾個季度。我們對伊拉克以外地區的調整後收入穩定成長感到高興，過去一年提高了 500 個基點。調整後營業利益率為 19%，而去年為 21.8%，下降主要與去年伊拉克收入增加和本期外匯波動有關。

Adjusted EPS was $0.44 versus $0.51 last year, with the prior period benefiting from higher Iraq revenues, offset by lower share count in the current period. Now, turning to our CMT business. Consumer money transfer transactions grew 4% in the quarter and 5% excluding Iraq, led by continued momentum in our branded digital business, growth in our digital white label business and continued stabilization of our retail business. Branded digital adjusted revenue was up 7% in the second quarter with transaction growth of 13%. We are pleased to have carried over the positive momentum from the first quarter with another quarter of solid revenue growth and double-digit transaction growth.

調整後每股收益為 0.44 美元，去年同期為 0.51 美元，前期受益於伊拉克收入增加，但本期股數減少。現在，談談我們的 CMT 業務。本季消費者匯款交易成長了 4%，伊拉克除外成長了 5%，這得益於我們品牌數位業務的持續發展勢頭、數位白標業務的成長以及零售業務的持續穩定。第二季品牌數位調整後營收成長 7%，交易量成長 13%。我們很高興延續了第一季的積極勢頭，又一個季度實現了穩健的收入成長和兩位數的交易成長。

We have now sustained double-digit transaction growth for five consecutive quarters, even against tougher comparisons. As we suggested last quarter, the spread between transaction growth and revenue growth rates increased slightly in the second quarter. This was largely driven by the calendar shift and holidays, and we believe the spread will continue to narrow going forward. Now, turning to our regional view, we are pleased to see the revenue improvements in three of our five regions quarter-over-quarter despite harder comparisons versus the first quarter, which benefited from a holiday shift and leap year.

即使面對更嚴峻的競爭環境，我們現在已經連續五個季度保持了兩位數的交易成長。正如我們上個季度所指出的，第二季度交易成長率和收入成長率之間的差距略有擴大。這主要是受日曆變化和假期的影響，我們相信未來價差將繼續縮小。現在，轉向我們的區域視角，儘管與受益於假期和閏年的第一季相比，收入比較困難，但我們很高興地看到，五個區域中有三個地區的收入環比增長。

North America revenue growth rate was down slightly relative to the first quarter, but grew on an absolute basis. And the Middle East was obviously facing a difficult comparison with the year-ago period benefiting from much higher Iraq contributions. We continue to make progress across the organization and are seeing positive revenue trends globally as we continue to focus on driving growth in 2025 and beyond. In the short term, we still have a couple of headwinds from some of the pricing initiatives we launched last year given the outperformance of our Iraq business and the loss of counter service at one of our large agent partners in Europe.

北美地區營收成長率較第一季略有下降，但絕對值是成長的。與去年同期相比，中東地區顯然面臨困難，因為去年同期中東地區受益於伊拉克更高的捐助。我們在整個組織內繼續取得進步，並看到全球積極的收入趨勢，因為我們繼續專注於推動 2025 年及以後的成長。短期內，由於我們伊拉克業務的優異表現以及我們在歐洲的一家大型代理合作夥伴的櫃檯服務的喪失，我們去年推出的一些定價舉措仍給我們帶來一些阻力。

As we anniversary these items in the back half of the year, we feel very good about closing the gap between transaction growth and our revenue growth rates, and we expect by the end of the year to be much closer to our immediate-term goal. Moving to our retail business, as Devin mentioned earlier, we maintained stable transaction trends for the fourth consecutive quarter as we continue to deploy operational improvements around the world, optimize our network and improve our value proposition in the marketplace. From a revenue point of view, we are making progress as well. With the second quarter adjusted revenue, excluding Iraq, growth rate improving 100 basis points versus the first quarter.

隨著我們在今年下半年慶祝這些項目週年，我們對縮小交易成長和收入成長率之間的差距感到非常高興，我們預計到今年年底我們將更接近我們的近期目標。談到我們的零售業務，正如德文之前提到的，我們連續第四個季度保持了穩定的交易趨勢，因為我們繼續在全球範圍內部署運營改進，優化我們的網絡並提高我們在市場上的價值主張。從收入角度來看，我們也取得了進展。第二季調整後的營收（不包括伊拉克）成長率較第一季提高了 100 個基點。

Europe and CIS led the improvement and retail transaction trends in the second quarter with transactions growing 3%. We are seeing strength across a number of markets, led by Spain, which was fueled by strong transactions in Western Union's owned and concept stores. Now, transitioning to our Consumer Services segment, which represents 10% of our company's revenue in the quarter, as a reminder, consumer services is mostly comprised of bill payment, revenue in the United States and Argentina and retail money order in the US. Adjusted revenue in the second quarter was up 14%, benefiting from the expansion of our retail foreign exchange business, our new media network business as well as continued growth in our retail money order business. We believe double-digit growth is sustainable going forward, which is forecasted to come in from our new and expanded products such as our wallet, prepaid cards, lending partnerships, foreign exchange and our media network business.

歐洲和獨聯體引領了第二季零售交易的改善和趨勢，交易量增加了 3%。我們看到多個市場都呈現強勁成長勢頭，其中西班牙表現最為強勁，這得益於西聯匯款自有店和概念店的強勁交易。現在，轉到我們的消費者服務部門，該部門占我們公司本季收入的 10%，提醒一下，消費者服務主要包括帳單支付、美國和阿根廷的收入以及美國的零售匯票。第二季調整後營收成長 14%，受益於我們的零售外匯業務、新媒體網路業務的擴張以及零售匯票業務的持續成長。我們相信未來兩位數的成長是可持續的，預計這將來​​自我們新的和擴展的產品，例如錢包、預付卡、貸款合作夥伴關係、外匯和媒體網絡業務。

In the second quarter, consumer services segment margins was lower sequentially which is a result of us investing in our new products and services for our customers. As these products gain scale, we expect margins to improve and to be at or better than the company average margins. Now, switching to our expense redeployment program. We continue to make progress on our five-year $150 million program, which we announced during our Investor Day.

第二季度，消費者服務部門的利潤率是季減，這是我們為客戶投資新產品和服務的結果。隨著這些產品規模的擴大，我們預期利潤率將會提高，達到或超過公司的平均利潤率。現在，轉到我們的費用重新部署計劃。我們在投資者日宣布的五年期 1.5 億美元計劃繼續取得進展。

In the second quarter, we incurred $9 million of redeployment costs as well as we continue to invest as we invested in our efficiencies and manage our cost structure. So far this year, we have taken action, which we expect to free up over $50 million in 2024. This is in addition to the $50 million we freed up in 2023. We are now 18 months into our five-year commitment and have achieved two-thirds of our Investor Day goal.

在第二季度，我們發生了 900 萬美元的重新部署成本，同時我們繼續投資於提高效率和管理成本結構。今年到目前為止，我們已經採取了行動，預計到 2024 年將釋放超過 5,000 萬美元。這是我們在 2023 年釋放的 5000 萬美元的補充。如今，我們的五年承諾已經過去了 18 個月，並且已經實現了投資者日目標的三分之二。

After being at Western Union for two years, I am even more confident that we have meaningful opportunities left to improve both our efficiency and effectiveness. Now, turning to our cash flow and balance sheet. Year-to-date, we generated $60 million of operating cash flows, which was negatively impacted by $160 million paid to the IRS related to our Tax Act, over $30 million in refundable deposits made to the IRS related to a proposed settlement of potential US Federal tax liabilities and almost $30 million related to prefunding of our account payout partners, which is one of our highest growth areas. Capital expenditures were approximately $65 million in the first half of the year, and we're almost 30% lower in the first half of last year as we have remained vigilant on investing in the right areas and shifting our agents from large upfront signing bonuses to performance-driven commission structures.

在西聯匯款工作了兩年後，我更加確信我們還有很大的機會提高我們的效率和效力。現在，我們來談談我們的現金流和資產負債表。今年迄今，我們產生了6,000 萬美元的營運現金流，但受到與我們的稅法相關的向美國國稅局支付的1.6 億美元、與美國政府擬議的潛在和解相關的向美國國稅局支付的3,000 多萬美元可退還押金的負面影響。今年上半年的資本支出約為 6500 萬美元，比去年上半年下降了近 30%，因為我們一直保持警惕，在正確的領域進行投資，並將我們的代理商從大額的前期簽約獎金轉向績效驅動的佣金結構。

I am also pleased that year-to-date, we have returned $335 million to our owners with $159 million being paid in dividends and $176 million in share repurchases. We have continued to maintain a strong balance sheet with cash and cash equivalents of over $1 billion and debt of $2.6 billion. Our leverage ratio has remained strong and we're at 2.7 times and 1.6 times on a gross and net basis, which we believe provides us with ample flexibility to return capital or potential M&A while maintaining our investment-grade credit rating. Now, moving on to our outlook, today, based on performance in the second quarter and our confidence for the remainder of the year, we are reconfirming our 2024 outlook.

我也很高興，今年迄今為止，我們已向股東返還了 3.35 億美元，其中 1.59 億美元以股息形式支付，1.76 億美元以股票回購形式支付。我們繼續保持強勁的資產負債表，現金和現金等價物超過 10 億美元，債務為 26 億美元。我們的槓桿率保持強勁，總槓桿率和淨槓桿率分別為 2.7 倍和 1.6 倍，我們相信這為我們提供了充足的靈活性來返還資本或潛在的併購，同時保持我們的投資級信用評級。現在，讓我們來看看我們的展望，今天，基於第二季度的表現和我們對今年剩餘時間的信心，我們重新確認了 2024 年的展望。

This outlook assumes no material changes in our macroeconomic conditions. As a reminder, we expect adjusted revenue to be in the range of $4.150 billion to $4.225 billion. Adjusted operating margins are expected to be in the range of 19% to 21%. And finally, adjusted EPS is expected to be in the range of $1.70 to $1.80.

這一觀點假設我們的宏觀經濟條件不會有重大變化。提醒一下，我們預計調整後的營收將在 41.5 億美元至 42.25 億美元之間。調整後的營業利益率預計在19%至21%之間。最後，調整後的每股盈餘預計在 1.70 美元至 1.80 美元之間。

As you think about the phasing for the rest of the year, we expect to have continued steady improvement in our adjusted revenue, excluding Iraq for the remainder of the year. As a reminder, Q3 2023 included $87 million of revenue from Iraq, and we expect somewhere between $10 million and $30 million of revenue from Iraq going forward per quarter. Additionally, our operating margins were lower than our 19% to 21% outlook in the fourth quarter during the past two years as we have invested in our Evolve strategy. We do not expect our margins to be compressed to the same level this year.

當您考慮今年剩餘時間的分階段安排時，我們預計今年剩餘時間除伊拉克業務外，調整後收入將繼續穩定改善。提醒一下，2023 年第三季來自伊拉克的收入為 8,700 萬美元，我們預計未來每季來自伊拉克的收入將在 1,000 萬至 3,000 萬美元之間。此外，由於我們對 Evolve 策略進行了投資，過去兩年我們的第四季營業利潤率低於 19% 至 21% 的預期。我們預計今年的利潤率不會被壓縮到同樣的水準。

To recap, we are confident with the trends that we are seeing in the first half of 2024 as well as the progress we are making towards our Evolve 2025 strategy. Thank you for joining the call today, and operator, we're ready to take questions.

總而言之，我們對 2024 年上半年的趨勢以及我們在實現 Evolve 2025 策略方面的進展充滿信心。感謝您今天的電話會議，接線員，我們已準備好回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Will Nance, Goldman Sachs.

(操作員指示) 高盛的威爾·南斯。

Wanted to follow up maybe on some of the comments at the top of the call around industry pricing. I guess it's interesting to hear that. I think you're right, that's probably different than the kind of general consensus out there. So I guess I would just kind of turn it back on you guys around the pricing dynamics, competitive dynamics in the market.

也許想跟進一下電話會議開頭關於行業定價的一些評論。我想聽到這一定很有趣。我認為你是對的，這可能與外界普遍的共識不同。所以我想我會把這個問題轉回你們的話題上，圍繞著市場定價動態和競爭動態。

Does that kind of feel right to you where do you think the biggest price reductions are happening out there in the industry? And do you feel like there is a tailwind in the business right now as it relates to kind of pricing actions on some of the competitors?

您覺得這種說法對嗎？您是否覺得目前業務中存在順風，因為它與一些競爭對手的定價行動有關？

Yes. Will, I think there's two things that work in your question. One is what I was trying to emphasize, which is the macro across the globe trend lines, which for several years we have seen with price compression. The World Bank data would indicate some of that has alleviated. First is I think where you're going, in any given market, in any given period of time, there are competitors who are more aggressive or less aggressive.

是的。威爾，我認為你的問題有兩點可以解釋。我想要強調的一點是，全球宏觀趨勢線，幾年來我們已經看到了價格壓縮的趨勢。世界銀行的數據表明，這種情況已有所緩解。首先，我認為無論你去哪裡，在任何一個特定的市場，在任何一個特定的時期，都會有比你更有進取心或更不積極的競爭對手。

And we continue to see specific competitors in specific markets, taking action. But we feel confident that the aggregate is stabilizing and in some cases, maybe moving in the right way, particularly as marginal and smaller, particularly corridor specific specialists seem to becoming either more rational or exiting the market.

我們不斷看到特定市場的特定競爭對手採取行動。但我們確信，整體正在趨於穩定，在某些情況下，可能正朝著正確的方向發展，特別是當邊際和較小的、特別是特定走廊的專家似乎變得更加理性或退出市場時。

Got it. That makes a ton of sense. And then I heard the comments on expecting kind of more steady progress on the spread on digital revenues versus transactions. I wonder if you could kind of speak to the retail side of the business. And then, I guess, across both of them, if there's any kind of notable comps we should be keeping in mind over the past, call it, nine months or so, that can kind of help us think about lapping some of the pricing actions you've been taking across the business?

知道了。這很有道理。然後我聽到一些評論，預計數位收入與交易的差距將擴大到更穩定的程度。我想知道您是否可以談談業務的零售方面。然後，我想，在這兩家公司中，如果過去九個月左右有任何值得注意的比較，我們應該牢記，這可以幫助我們考慮採取一些定價行動你一直在做哪些業務？

Will, as we've said many times, the lapping is what drives that, the aggregate narrowing of the gap. But we also have other dynamics that are going on in the spread, some of which you heard about on the call, which is the shift to payout to account, which in general is a lower RPT, which will continue to keep and persist with some spread as well as individual corridor mixes some corridors, particularly some of the larger and faster growth corridors are higher RPT. So as we index in those to drive growth, you will also see some compression in those RPTs and therefore, continuance of the spread. We do remain confident as we have stated that we can narrow that gap to be 300 to 400 basis points over time, and we are on a lockstep program to get there. Matt, I don't know if you want to add anything?

威爾，正如我們多次說過的，重疊是推動差距整體縮小的動力。但是，我們在利差方面還存在其他動態，其中一些是您在電話會議上聽到的，即轉向帳戶支付，這通常會導致較低的 RPT，這將繼續保持並持續下去。混合一些走廊，特別是一些較大且增長較快的走廊具有較高的RPT。因此，當我們將這些因素納入指數以推動成長時，您也會看到這些 RPT 有所壓縮，因此利差會持續存在。我們確實仍然有信心，正如我們已經聲明的那樣，我們可以隨著時間的推移將這一差距縮小到 300 到 400 個基點，而且我們正在同步實施計劃以實現這一目標。馬特，我不知道您是否想補充一些什麼？

I will just add one thing, Will, this and you probably already know this, and everybody probably knows it. But the other thing that we do love about our account payout customers is they are typically a stickier customer, typically have a large higher lifetime value. So we're actually very excited and are targeting those customers where the market is growing, but it does create a little bit of near-term RPT compression.

我只想補充一點，威爾，這一點你可能已經知道了，而且每個人可能都知道。但是，我們確實喜歡帳戶支付客戶的另一個原因是，他們通常是更具黏性的客戶，通常具有更高的終身價值。因此，我們實際上非常興奮，並且瞄準那些市場正在成長的客戶，但這確實會在短期內造成一些 RPT 壓縮。

Darrin Peller, Wolfe Research.

達林·佩勒（Darrin Peller），沃爾夫研究公司。

If you could help us understand a little bit more of your expectations on the trajectory on a retail versus digital transaction standpoint. It looked to us like your retail side was around flat from a growth rate standpoint. I think it had grown a couple of percent last quarter. So just maybe a little more on the numbers, but then also Devin, just obviously, there's always pricing adjustments here and there.

如果您能幫助我們更了解您對零售與數位交易發展軌蹟的預期。從成長率的角度來看，我們看來你們的零售業務基本上持平。我認為上個季度它增長了百分之幾。因此，可能在數字上會多一點，但同樣，德文，顯然，這裡和那裡總是會有價格調整。

The majority of which anniversaried. So what do you expect to do in terms of the tactics and the tools to take to really help accelerate overall or just keep your transaction growth rates positive in the mid-single digit level more broadly? Just keep doing what you're doing? Or any more specifics would be great.

其中大部分是周年紀念日。那麼，您希望採取什麼策略和工具來真正幫助整體加速發展，或者只是讓您的交易成長率保持在中等個位數的水平上？繼續做你正在做的事情嗎？或者如果能提供更多具體資訊就更好了。

Darrin, thanks for joining the call. I' m going to tackle the first half of that and then Devin will tackle the second. But on your question around your first part of the question there around really spreads. We would expect to continue closer to the 400 basis points that Devin talked about a minute ago.

達林，感謝您參加電話會議。我將解決前半部分，然後德文將解決後半部分。但關於你問題的第一部分，範圍確實很廣。我們預計該利率將繼續接近 Devin 剛才談到的 400 個基點。

But the other part of your question really was around what are we expecting for the transaction growth rates is the first part of your question there. We've now had five quarters in a row of double-digit 12%, 13% branded digital transaction growth. We've had now four quarters of basically flattish, sometimes a little bit above zero, sometimes a little bit below, but it's basically been flattish now for four quarters in a row. So it wasn't really 2% that might be a white label impact you're doing your math there.

但你問題的另一部分其實是關於我們對交易成長率的預期，這是你問題的第一部分。我們現在已經連續五個季度實現兩位數的品牌數位交易成長，分別為 12%、13%。現在我們已經有四個季度基本上持平，有時略高於零，有時略低於零，但現在基本上已經連續四個季度持平了。因此，實際上這並不是 2%，這可能是您在那裡進行的計算所產生的白標影響。

But we feel very good about the trajectory we were on. As Devin talked about a minute ago, we've got significant work we're still doing both on rolling out quick resend, remember me, and all the technology we're doing in retail, which we think will continue to provide a tailwind for us as well as all the work that Devin talked about in the opening that we're working on in our branded digital business around the solutions, the examples he gave on Australia and so forth. So we feel very good about the sustainability of both those and continued opportunity for improvement.

但我們對自己所走的軌跡感到非常滿意。正如 Devin 剛才所說，我們仍在進行大量工作，包括推出快速重新發送、記住我以及我們在零售領域所做的所有技術，我們認為這些技術將繼續為我們以及德文在開幕式上提到的我們在品牌數位業務中圍繞解決方案所進行的所有工作，以及他給出的有關澳洲的例子等等。因此，我們對這兩者可持續性以及持續改進的機會感到非常滿意。

To your second question, Darrin, about where do we go from here? So first, we are very positive about the fact that we've sustained consistent transaction growth, as Matt said, in digital at 12-plus percent and in retail flattish, which has given us three or four quarters now of 5%. As we narrow the goal, we can expect revenue to continue to trend towards that transaction. We have a whole set of programs that I was talking about, whether it's kind of funnel effectiveness on digital or improving, continued our retail point of sale, our customer loyalty, our ongoing transaction excellence program to continue to drive those numbers up, but in the short term, creating the platform to drive consistent growth and to continue narrowing the gap between revenue and transactions is where we're headed for the rest of this year.

對於你的第二個問題，達林，我們接下來要去哪裡？首先，我們非常看好我們維持了持續的交易成長，正如馬特所說，數位業務的成長速度超過 12%，零售業務則持平，目前已有三、四個季度的成長率達到 5%。隨著我們縮小目標，我們可以預期收入將繼續趨向於該交易。我們有一套完整的計劃，無論是數位化通路效率，還是改善零售點、客戶忠誠度、持續交易卓越計劃，以繼續提高這些數字，但在短期內，我們今年剩餘時間的目標就是創建平台來推動持續成長，並繼續縮小收入和交易之間的差距。

Tien-Tsin Huang, JPMorgan.

摩根大通的 Tien-Tsin Huang。

I wanted to ask on the margin front. I know it was in the range, but how did second quarter margin come in versus your plan? And any callouts on the second half margin cadence? I know there's some considerations with Iraq and consumer services, marketing, et cetera.

我想問一下關於保證金的問題。我知道它在這個範圍內，但是第二季的利潤率與你的計劃相比如何？對於下半年的利潤節奏有什麼看法嗎？我知道在伊拉克和消費者服務、行銷等方面有一些考慮。

Tien-Tsin, thanks for joining the call. The margins ended up having a little bit of a headwind this quarter that we weren't expecting related to foreign currency. We pre-buy currencies in some of the markets around the world. If you monitor the Mexican peso, we've seen a strong appreciation throughout the quarter, but we feel very good about our margins beyond that.

Tien-Tsin，感謝您參加電話會議。本季利潤率出現了一些不利因素，這是我們沒有預料到的，與外幣有關。我們預先購買了全球一些市場的貨幣。如果你監測墨西哥比索，我們會看到整個季度都出現強勁升值趨勢，但除此之外，我們對自己的利潤率感到非常滿意。

We're right where we expected to be. We're very happy with our $0.44. That was in the range of where we expected to be for the quarter, but from an operating margin, that was the one watch out that will move over time. And a higher currency actually helped us long term on revenue just has a little bit of a bite on the currency you're holding.

我們正處於我們預期的位置。我們對 0.44 美元感到非常滿意。這在我們預期的本季度範圍內，但從營業利潤率來看，這是一個會隨著時間推移而變化的問題。而更高的貨幣實際上有助於我們長期獲得收入，但會對您持有的貨幣產生一點影響。

I see. That helps. Okay. Just real quick in my follow-up then. On consumer services, good result there. I know the comp is a little bit tougher in the third quarter, but just the confidence here in the double digits, anything more to share in terms of what's contributing in the very near term amongst the newer initiatives?

我懂了。這有幫助。好的。那麼我的後續工作很快就完成了。在消費者服務方面，成績良好。我知道第三季的競爭會稍微艱難一些，但這裡的信心已經達到兩位數，您還能分享一下近期新舉措的貢獻嗎？

We're starting to see a bunch of traction as we highlighted in this call with things like our ForEx business in Europe, where we've expanded now into two or three more countries. Our media network, which is now starting to get some traction here in the US. And as you know, we've launched a prepaid card here in the US. We've also seen a bit of a headwind in the bill pay business, particularly in Argentina, given all the disruption in that country and the strength of that business historically for us that should start to reverse itself as the politics and the inflation there, maybe settled down into something more normative. We feel pretty good about our projection for the double digit for the rest of the year, and there's enough stuff in the pipeline to continue that trajectory for at least the foreseeable future.

正如我們在這次電話會議中所強調的那樣，我們開始看到很多進展，例如我們在歐洲的外匯業務，目前我們已經擴展到另外兩三個國家。我們的媒體網絡現在開始在美國獲得一些關注。如您所知，我們已經在美國推出了預付卡。我們也看到帳單支付業務出現了一些阻力，特別是在阿根廷，考慮到該國的所有混亂局面以及歷史上該業務的強勁勢頭，隨著那裡的政治和通貨膨脹，這種情況應該會開始逆轉。我們對今年剩餘時間兩位數的預測感到非常滿意，並且有足夠的準備來至少在可預見的未來繼續保持這種軌跡。

Vasu Govil, KBW.

瓦蘇·戈維爾（Vasu Govil），KBW。

Some of them were already answered. Just two quick ones. One on Iraq revenues. Matt, I think I got your comment that you're still expecting $10 million to $30 million, I think, per quarter. Just any change in expectation there versus what you were expecting previously?

其中一些問題已經得到解答。只需簡單兩點。一個是關於伊拉克收入。馬特，我想我收到了你的評論，你仍然預計每季的收入為 1000 萬到 3000 萬美元。與您之前的預期相比，這裡的預期有什麼變化嗎？

Vasu, thanks for joining the call. Now, we had talked about in our last quarterly call that we had expected the range of $10 million to $30 million per quarter for the remainder of the year. Q2 came in at $34 million, so a little above the upper end. We had a relatively stable monthly trend during the second quarter. So we continue to believe it would be $10 million to $30 million, but it's a very volatile market, as you saw last year with a high mark of [118] and a low mark in Q1 of '25.

Vasu，感謝您加入電話會議。我們在上次季度電話會議上曾談到，預計今年剩餘時間每季的銷售額將在 1,000 萬美元至 3,000 萬美元之間。Q2 的收入為 3,400 萬美元，略高於上限。我們第二季的月度趨勢相對穩定。因此，我們仍然相信它會在1000 萬到3000 萬美元之間，但這是一個非常不穩定的市場，正如你去年看到的那樣，最高分為[118]，最低分為25 年第一季度。

So we think it's going to be much more normative, but it's still a very volatile market. So that's why we've got the wide range there of $10 million to $30 million for the quarter.

因此，我們認為它將變得更加規範，但它仍然是一個非常不穩定的市場。這就是為什麼我們本季的預算範圍定在 1000 萬美元到 3000 萬美元之間。

And just (multiple speakers)

而且只是（多位發言者）

Which was the same range that we gave last quarter coming out of the accelerated first quarter, which we knew would not continue given how we've solved some of our partner and settlement issues. So I think that range is a reasonable range, although a bit wide, given all the gives and takes that are there, and we were pretty close this quarter to it.

這與我們上個季度在第一季加速成長時給出的範圍相同，但我們知道，考慮到我們已經解決了一些合作夥伴和結算問題，這種情況不會持續下去。因此，我認為這個範圍是一個合理的範圍，儘管有點寬泛，但考慮到所有的利弊，我們本季度已經非常接近這個範圍。

That makes sense. Just a quick one for you, Devin, on capital allocation. I know you've been focused on M&A. How are you thinking about prioritizing that versus more buybacks to the extent that you're not seeing assets in the market?

這很有道理。德文，關於資本配置，我只想快速問你一個問題。我知道您一直專注於併購。由於您在市場上沒有看到資產，您如何考慮優先考慮這項措施而不是更多回購？

I'm very excited about the stability that we've now been able to achieve in our core operating business. And with three or four quarters of that stability behind gives us confidence that we could execute an M&A transaction integrated into the company and then drive value from it. So we continue to look. Obviously, we're disciplined buyers, and I've expressed on this call that we remain very focused on ensuring capital allocation that is favorable from our shareholders' point of view.

我對我們目前能夠在核心營運業務中實現的穩定性感到非常興奮。並且，憑藉三到四個季度的穩定表現，我們有信心可以執行整合到公司中的併購交易，並從中獲取價值。因此我們繼續觀察。顯然，我們是自律的買家，我在這次電話會議上表示，我們仍然非常注重確保從股東的角度有利的資本配置。

So if the right opportunities come along, I believe we now have an operating platform in which we can drive successful value creation and integration. We just have to make sure it's the right opportunity.

因此，如果有合適的機會出現，我相信我們現在擁有一個可以推動成功價值創造和整合的營運平台。我們只是要確保這是正確的機會。

Andrew Schmidt, Citi.

花旗銀行的安德魯‧施密特 (Andrew Schmidt)。

First on just digital marketing. Now that you're seeing some good history of results, is it time to put more money in digital marketing? Or do you feel good about the current spend level? Just curious about the digital marketing investment as a starting point.

首先談論數位行銷。現在您已經看到了一些良好的業績，是不是該在數位行銷上投入更多資金了？或者您對目前的支出水準感到滿意嗎？只是好奇數位行銷投資作為起點。

It's a great question. It's something we look at every quarter. And as you probably can't tell because we only report it once a year, we vary the amount we spend in any given quarter based on the calendar, the holiday seasons and the effectiveness of the programs that we're running. As I started to talk about 2 years ago, we made a pretty significant shift going from what I would call a marketing budgeted approach to a very disciplined LTV to CAC approach.

這是一個很好的問題。這是我們每季都會關注的事情。您可能不知道，因為我們每年只報告一次，我們會根據日曆、假期和我們正在運行的計劃的有效性來調整每個季度的支出金額。正如我兩年前開始談論的那樣，我們進行了一次相當重大的轉變，從我所謂的行銷預算方法轉變為非常嚴謹的 LTV 到 CAC 方法。

And so when we see opportunities, they look like we can invest more money and maintain our discipline around LTV to CAC, we put money to work. And so we are driving that program forward. And as those opportunities create like I highlighted in Australia, we will put more money behind it.

因此，當我們看到機會時，我們可以投入更多資金，並保持對 LTV 和 CAC 的紀律，我們將資金投入工作。因此我們正在推動該計劃向前發展。正如我在澳洲所強調的那樣，隨著這些機會的出現，我們將投入更多資金。

Got it. And then I want to go back to the comments on the environment. Yes, we've been seeing the rationalization too in the retail end markets specifically. In your comment on the retail agent activations were interesting. Does this create sort of a material tailwind? Do you think the growth as you kind of pick up more white space, particularly in the US and more broadly globally? Or is it more something that's supportive of just the current trend line? Just curious to take your temperature on that.

知道了。然後我想回到對環境的評論。是的，我們也看到了零售終端市場的合理化。您對零售代理商啟動的評論很有趣。這是否會形成某種物質上的順風？您是否認為隨著您獲得更多的空白，特別是在美國以及更廣泛的全球範圍內，會出現成長？或者它只是支援當前趨勢線的東西？我只是好奇想知道你對此的態度。

Yes, great question. As you know, we've paid a lot of attention to network productivity. So we've moved again from the idea that total count is the metric that matters to productive agent locations is the metric that matters. We've also focused a lot on how we get our pyramid right across our strategic distribution partners, our independent agent partners, our controlled distribution, which is our concept stores and our own stores. I think what you see in North America is that team is really driving the program forward.

是的，很好的問題。如您所知，我們非常重視網路生產力。因此，我們再次從「總數是重要指標」的想法轉變為「生產性代理位置是重要指標」。我們也非常注重如何在我們的策略分銷合作夥伴、獨立代理商合作夥伴、受控分銷（即我們的概念店和我們自己的商店）之間建立我們的金字塔。我認為你在北美看到的是該團隊確實在推動該計劃向前發展。

It's part of what has helped propel our retail results to this point in time. And I would expect that will continue to help us accelerate our retail results as we drive more productivity and new productive locations, not just new locations, new productive locations across our network, both in the US and in Europe. By the way, you can see it in Europe, which is further along in the network management program, which I think this quarter had 3% transaction growth.

這也是我們零售業績至今取得如此成績的部分原因。我希望這將繼續幫助我們加速我們的零售業績，因為我們將提高生產力並建立新的生產地點，而不僅僅是新地點，而是我們整個網路（包括美國和歐洲）的新生產地點。順便說一句，您可以看到歐洲在網路管理計劃方面取得了進一步的進展，我認為本季度的交易量增加了 3%。

Tim Chiodo, Crédit Suisse.

瑞士信貸的 Tim Chiodo。

I just want to circle back again on the margins. I know we dug into this a little bit, but specifically the CMT margins, they came in a little bit better despite the lesser revenue. And I just wanted to see if you could touch on again that specific for that segment, what the main drivers were? And what is implied for the second half of the guidance for the margin for the CMT?

我只是想再次回到邊緣。我知道我們對此進行了一些深入研究，但具體到 CMT 利潤率，儘管收入較少，但利潤率還是有所提高。我只是想看看您是否可以再次具體談談該部分的主要驅動因素是什麼？那麼，指導意見的後半部對於 CMT 的保證金有何暗示呢？

Tim, as you've been following us for a number of years, our margins do move around from quarter-to-quarter as we make investments in our product as we roll out new partners, have incentives and the like. We're committed to the 19% to 21% margin, but it's hard to give you a specific guidance beyond that range.

提姆，你已經關注我們很多年了，隨著我們推出新的合作夥伴、提供激勵措施等，我們對產品進行了投資，我們的利潤率確實會逐季度發生變化。我們致力於實現 19% 至 21% 的利潤率，但很難為您提供超出該範圍的具體指導。

Jason Kupferberg, Bank of America.

美國銀行的傑森‧庫普弗伯格（Jason Kupferberg）。

I think you had mentioned in the prepared remarks, some calendar shift and holidays impacting the spread between digital revenue and transaction growth. Can you just elaborate on that? And just talk about for the second half. Does that spread on the digital side go back more to like the 4% we saw in the first quarter?

我想您在準備好的評論中提到過，一些日曆變化和假期會影響數位收入和交易成長之間的差距。能詳細解釋一下嗎？只談下半部分。數字方面的利差是否會回升至第一季的 4% 水準？

Jason, may or may not be now, but I know you've also followed us for a number of years. But the way we report our transactions are based on when they're actually collected, whereas the accounting rules drive our revenue based on when actually happen. So a little bit of a disconnect between the two of those. Eid moved between Q2 and Q1 this year. So is the Muslim holiday shifted that caused a little bit of a disconnect at the end of the quarter in Q1.

傑森，現在可能不是，但我知道你也跟著我們很多年了。但是，我們報告交易的方式是基於交易的實際收取時間，而會計規則則根據實際發生時間來決定我們的收入。因此這兩者之間存在一些脫節。今年的開齋節位於第二季和第一季之間。因此，穆斯林節日的轉變導致第一季末出現了一些脫節。

As we talked on the prepared remarks, our belief is that we will continue to advance towards our immediate intermediate-term goal at the end of the year. that Devin talked about earlier, 400 to 500 basis points. So it will continue to move as the year progresses.

正如我們在準備好的發言中所說的那樣，我們相信，我們將繼續朝著我們在今年年底的近期中期目標邁進。正如 Devin 之前提到的，400 到 500 個基點。因此隨著時間的推移，它將繼續移動。

Okay. And then just a follow-up on the retail transaction growth. I know you said it was stable, kind of flattish year-over-year. Does it need to turn positive next year to get to that 2% revenue growth target for 2025?

好的。然後只是對零售交易成長的後續關注。我知道您說過它是穩定的，與去年同期相比持平。為了達到 2025 年 2% 的營收成長目標，明年是否需要轉為正值？

There's multiple levers there. We believe we have opportunity to accelerate both our retail business, our branded digital business, as well as our white label. So across the board, I think there's opportunities, and there's levers to get to that 2% doesn't require retail to be positive on its own, because we have room in the other places as well. But we do believe there is upside to our current retail. This quarter actually made progress if you pull leap year out of Q1, so we actually continue to make some advancements quarter-over-quarter if you didn't have the leap year last quarter.

那裡有多個槓桿。我們相信我們有機會加速我們的零售業務、品牌數位業務以及白標業務。因此，從整體來看，我認為還有機會，也有手段可以實現 2% 的成長，而這不需要零售業本身就實現正成長，因為我們在其他地方也有空間。但我們確實相信我們目前的零售業務還有上升空間。如果將閏年從第一季中剔除，本季實際上取得了進展，因此如果上個季度沒有閏年，我們實際上會繼續逐季取得一些進步。

Ken Suchoski, Autonomous.

肯‧蘇喬斯基 (Ken Suchoski)，自治。

I wanted to ask about the physical retail business, excluding Iraq. And I think by our estimates, it looks like FX-neutral revenue growth declined mid-single digits, about 5% year-over-year over this quarter. I think that was in line with last quarter. And then retail transactions, ex-Iraq increased maybe 1.5% year-over-year. So I just wanted to confirm those numbers. And I was wondering if you could give us a sense for how those two metrics might trend over the coming quarters.

我想問一下伊拉克以外的實體零售業務。我認為，根據我們的估計，不計匯率影響，本季的營收成長率似乎比去年同期下降了中等個位數，約 5%。我認為這與上一季一致。然後，伊拉克以外的零售交易年增了 1.5%。所以我只是想確認這些數字。我想知道您是否可以告訴我們未來幾季這兩個指標的趨勢如何。

Ken, thanks for the question. The retail transactions are closer to zero than you're calculating. You've included in there the white label business because the way what we disclosed, you're backing into a number that's a little off, but it's closer to flattish. As I mentioned in the last question, we do expect to have continued progress both in our retail and branded digital and white label business throughout the remainder of the year and going into next year. On the revenue impact, you are much closer to the right answer.

肯，謝謝你的提問。零售交易量比您計算的更接近零。您已經將白標業務納入其中，因為根據我們的揭露，您得到的數字有些偏離，但更接近平穩。正如我在上一個問題中提到的，我們確實預計在今年剩餘時間和明年我們的零售、品牌數位和白標業務將繼續取得進展。就收入影響而言，您已經更接近正確答案了。

Okay. And then just, I guess, a follow-up on that one the, I guess, it looks like physical retail pricing ex-Iraq came down quite a bit quarter-over-quarter, maybe mid-single digits. Anything to sort of call out there that's driving that? I know the first quarter ended on a holiday, so I'm not sure if that impacted it at all, but just curious how we should think about that pricing going forward?

好的。然後，我想，對這個問題進行後續跟進，看起來伊拉克以外的實體零售價格環比下降了不少，可能是個位數的中等水平。有什麼事情可以說明是什麼導致了這種情況嗎？我知道第一季結束時正值假期，所以我不確定這是否有影響，但只是好奇我們應該如何考慮未來的定價？

Yes. We've not had major movement quarter-over-quarter in our retail pricing. I think it's still the same white labels diluting that. As you know, white label RPTs are meaningfully lower than our branded digital business as well as our retail business, so I think it's a mix issue there and the assumption you're making on white label. I think it's actually the same as you may have asked last quarter or someone asked last quarter, the RPTs are relatively flat quarter-on-quarter.

是的。我們的零售價格與上一季相比沒有出現重大變動。我認為仍然是同樣的白色標籤稀釋了這一點。如您所知，白標 RPT 明顯低於我們的品牌數位業務以及零售業務，因此我認為這是一個混合問題，也是您對白標做出的假設。我認為這實際上與您上個季度問到的問題或某人上個季度問到的問題相同，RPT 的季度環比增長相對持平。

Ramsey EI-Assal, Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的 Ramsey EI-Assal。

I was wondering if you could comment on the impact of Argentina inflation and currency to branded digital revenues this quarter. It looked like there was about a 200 basis point add back. It's been 0 for a little while, though, as you recall, in the past, that you'd had a line item there before. So I was just curious what changed in the quarter? What does macro look like down? And more importantly, what should we expect in the second half in terms of that line?.

我想知道您是否可以評論一下阿根廷通貨膨脹和貨幣對本季品牌數位收入的影響。看起來好像有大約 200 個基點的加回。不過，您還記得，過去您曾在那裡有過一項。所以我只是好奇本季發生了什麼變化？宏觀看起來是什麼樣的？更重要的是，就這條線而言，我們對下半場應該有怎樣的期待？

Ramsey, thanks for joining the call today. Yes, this is actually the voice has been in the last two years. The drivers really, as Devin talked about in the opening, we've had some really strong growth in Australia, which is driving part of that as well as we had some FX hedges that matured this quarter that drove a little bit wider spread than we would have had otherwise. Going forward, all of our forecasts are foreign currency agnostic. So it's hard for me to really tell you what's going to happen tomorrow. If I knew, I might not be working here.

拉姆齊，感謝您今天參加電話會議。是的，這實際上是過去兩年來一直存在的聲音。正如Devin 在開場時提到的那樣，驅動因素實際上是我們在澳洲實現了非常強勁的成長，這也是推動因素之一，同時我們本季有一些外匯對沖到期，這使得利差比我們預期的要大一些。展望未來，我們所有的預測都與外幣無關。所以我很難真正告訴你明天會發生什麼。如果我知道的話我可能就不會在這裡工作了。

Got it. And then just on the retail side, maybe an update on some of the products that you've talked about, namely Quick Resend and Remember Me, just curious what the timing and cadence that we should expect for rolling those products out in the months ahead.

知道了。然後就零售方面而言，也許會更新您談到的一些產品，即“快速重新發送”和“記住我”，我只是好奇我們應該在未來幾個月內推出這些產品的時間和節奏是什麼。

So as you know, we launched our first Quick Resend, Remember Me, which if you remember, a significant portion of our retail transactions are derived from retail customers who have transacted with us before. So expediting them through the process, makes efficiency gains for our agents and a better customer experience for our customers. We launched that on our legacy point of sale in North America. We then went through the rest of our point-of-sale experience in North America.

如您所知，我們推出了第一個“快速重新發送”功能“記住我”，如果您還記得的話，我們的很大一部分零售交易來自以前與我們交易過的零售客戶。因此，加快整個流程可以提高我們代理的效率，並為我們的客戶提供更好的客戶體驗。我們在北美傳統的銷售點推出了該產品。然後我們介紹了我們在北美其餘的銷售點體驗。

And then, at the beginning of this year, we began rolling it out across the rest of the world starting in the first quarter in parts of Europe and now have been expanding that going west. As you can see, the impact of that is starting to show up in the transaction growth at $3 million, up almost 70% quarter-over-quarter. So we expect it to roll out through the rest of this year, and we'll have full network penetration of that experience across the globe by the end of this year.

然後，在今年年初，我們開始在世界其他地區推廣這項服務，從第一季的歐洲部分地區開始，現在我們正向西部擴展。如您所見，其影響力開始體現在交易量成長上，達到 300 萬美元，季增近 70%。因此，我們預計它將在今年剩餘時間內推出，並在今年年底前在全球全面實現該體驗的網路普及。

Rufus Hone, BMO.

魯弗斯·霍恩（Rufus Hone），BMO。

I wanted to ask about slide 10 in your presentation where you're showing the higher transactions per customer in your 2024 cohort. Is that something you're seeing across all geographies? And any differences you're seeing across the regions? And just how sustainable do you think that improvement is?

我想問您簡報中的第 10 張投影片，其中您展示了 2024 年群體中每位客戶的交易量更高。您是否在各個地區都看到了這種現象？您認為不同地區有差異嗎？您認為這種改善能持續多久？

So that improvement, we think, is very sustainable, and it goes to quality of the customers that we're attracting with our new program. It has a higher percentage of payout to account customers, which have higher TPCs and higher PPCs. They also have higher long-term retention. The other thing is, as we talked about on retail with Remember Me and Quick Resend, we've adopted some of those same practices on our digital platform, which is allowing repeat customers a much easier time to conduct the same transaction.

因此，我們認為，這種改進是非常可持續的，並且它與我們透過新計劃吸引的客戶的品質有關。它對帳戶客戶的支付比例更高，這些客戶的 TPC 和 PPC 也更高。他們的長期保留率也更高。另一件事是，正如我們在零售領域談到的「記住我」和「快速重新發送」一樣，我們在數位平台上也採用了一些相同的做法，這讓回頭客可以更輕鬆地進行相同的交易。

So the Quick Resend functionality has improved significantly. So you're seeing customers come back and do repeat transactions at a higher velocity than we have in the past. As you could expect, it varies across region. Our strongest performance is in North America. Asia is coming on strongly. Europe continues to improve.

因此快速重新發送功能得到了顯著改善。因此，您會看到客戶回來並以比過去更高的速度重複交易。正如你所料，它因地區而異。我們最強勁的表現是在北美。亞洲正在強勢崛起。歐洲持續改善。

We've had some struggles in the Middle East given the dynamics there and the nature of the digital model in the Middle East, which is what we call a digital master agent model because of the license requirement. So it's a little tougher to push through improvements and changes in that model than it is in many other parts of the rest of the world.

鑑於中東地區的動態以及中東數位模式的性質，我們在中東遇到了一些困難，由於許可證的要求，我們稱之為數位主代理模式。因此，與世界其他許多地區相比，推動該模式的改進和變革要困難一些。

Bryan Keane, Deutsche Bank.

德意志銀行的布萊恩·基恩。

Just want to ask about the World Bank and the World Bank expecting remittance growth to accelerate in the industry. Do you guys feel the same way that you expect the industry to accelerate? And what might be those drivers?

只是想問一下世界銀行以及世界銀行是否預計該行業的匯款成長將加速。你們是否也有同樣的感覺，預計這個產業將會加速發展？那麼這些驅動因素可能是什麼呢？

So everything we're seeing has been positive for the remittance industry. As you know, if you had asked us a year ago, we had some significant concerns about the effects of inflation on our customer base, which is tends to be at the lower end of the social economic totem pole and the effects of inflation have an adverse effect of greater proportions on our customers than they might on others. We have largely not seen that play out in most of the world where PPCs have remained consistent and TPCs as you can see in the prepared comments have been increasing, not decreasing. So our customer has proven exceptionally resilient in the face of the economic challenges associated with inflation and migration trends have been steady across most of the important markets in the world and have accelerated in some places like in the Middle East with the construction that's been going on in Saudi Arabia and UAE and other places.

因此，我們所看到的一切對於匯款行業來說都是有利的。如你所知，如果你一年前問過我們，我們會非常擔心通貨膨脹對我們的客戶群的影響，他們往往處於社會經濟圖騰柱的底層，通貨膨脹的影響對我們的客戶產生的不利影響比對其他客戶產生的不利影響更大。在世界上大多數地方，我們基本上沒有看到這種情況的發生，在這些地方，PPC 保持一致，而TPC（正如您在準備好的評論中所看到的）一直在增加，而不是減少。因此，我們的客戶在面對通貨膨脹和移民趨勢帶來的經濟挑戰時表現出了極強的韌性，在世界上大多數重要市場，移民趨勢一直保持穩定，而且在中東等一些地區，隨著建設的進行，移民趨勢仍在加速。

So we generally have a positive view as my comments indicated, at least in the foreseeable future, call it, the next 12 to 24 months, lest some other great global disaster or large war or some other thing disrupts it. But in a generally consistent macro environment, we are positive on the outlook for the industry.

因此，正如我的評論所表明的那樣，我們總體上持積極看法，至少在可預見的未來，即未來的12 到24 個月內，以免發生其他重大全球災難、大規模戰爭或其他事件擾亂它。但在整體一致的宏觀環境下，我們對產業前景持樂觀態度。

And then as a follow-up, just thinking about your point that if you look at your data versus the World Bank and you guys are now share gaining. Who is the share loser now? Is that the other digital competitors? Or is that more traditional banks?

然後作為後續問題，想想你的觀點，如果你將你們的數據與世界銀行的數據進行比較，你會發現你們的份額現在正在增加。現在誰是股票虧損者？那是其他數位競爭對手嗎？或者說是更傳統的銀行？

So again, the World Bank is not digital only, it is digital and retail MTOs and banks, so you've got a large dynamic that's going on. You've got customers switching from banks to MTOs and within MTOs, you've got retail customers switching to digital. What I would say in general is the banks are net share losers. This is not particularly central to theirs and our traditional customer at $300 or $400 of remittance volume is generally not their target transaction.

所以，世界銀行不僅僅是數位化的，它是數位化和零售 MTO 和銀行的結合，因此，你會看到正在發生的巨大的動態。客戶從銀行轉向 MTO，而在 MTO 內部，零售客戶也從銀行轉向數位化。整體而言，我想說的是銀行的股票是淨虧損的。這對他們來說並不是特別重要，我們傳統的客戶匯款額為 300 美元或 400 美元通常不是他們的目標交易。

And then second, the more marginal players, corridor specialists, undercapitalized digital players, people who had been fueled into this segment and into this industry over the last couple of years are struggling a lot more when they now begin to realize it's a fairly capital-intensive business. And in particular, when you start migrating to pay out to account where you have to prefund in order to make it happen, it becomes even more expensive in a high interest rate environment. So the smaller, less scale players are struggling and losing share, the banks are losing share.

其次，邊緣玩家、走廊專家、資本不足的數位玩家，以及過去幾年進入這一領域和行業的人們，現在開始意識到這是一個相當資本密集的行業，他們現在正面臨更大的困境。的業務。特別是，當你開始轉向支付帳戶時，你必須預先籌資才能實現這一目標，在高利率環境下，這會變得更加昂貴。因此，規模較小、實力較弱的參與者陷入困境並失去市場份額，銀行的市佔率也不斷下降。

Thank you for joining today's Western Union's second quarter 2024 results conference call. We hope you have a great day.

感謝您參加今天的西聯匯款 2024 年第二季業績電話會議。我們希望您度過愉快的一天。