Western Union Cuts Could Hit More Than 1,000 Jobs in Costa Rica

Western Union will gradually shrink its operations center in Costa Rica over the next 12 months and shift positions to Guatemala, Lithuania and the Philippines, the company confirmed on Wednesday. Local reports citing sources familiar with the plan say more than 1,000 jobs could be affected. The Denver-based money transfer company said the changes follow a comprehensive review of its business. Western Union said the restructuring is intended to drive greater efficiency across its global financial network and to place support services where they best meet the needs of customers and agents. The company stressed that it will maintain an active presence in Costa Rica. Money sending and receiving services for customers and agents in Costa Rica will continue without interruption, Western Union said, as the reduction applies to its corporate operations center rather than the network of agent locations where customers send and collect funds. Western Union has not disclosed how many positions will be eliminated or relocated. Its Costa Rica careers page describes the site as employing more than 1,200 people representing 32 nationalities and 17 languages. Local business press figures put the workforce at 1,244, with a commitment by the company to maintain 1,100 positions. The Costa Rica operation serves as Western Union’s regional operations center for Latin America and is based in Santa Ana, west of San José. It operates under the free trade zone regime, which exempts qualifying companies from income tax, and is registered locally as Unión del Oeste de Costa Rica S.R.L. In an internal communication sent to employees on Wednesday and signed by Ben Hawksworth, Western Union said it plans to move its regional support hub for the Americas to an operations center in Guatemala City. The message said the shift is meant to align the work done at each center with the region in which it is located. The company told staff that not all work will leave Costa Rica and that it is still evaluating which roles will remain. The transition will take place gradually, team by team, and Western Union expects much of it to be complete by mid-2027. During that period, employees in Costa Rica will work alongside colleagues in Guatemala City and other offices to hand over knowledge, procedures and best practices, according to the communication. Workers whose roles are affected will receive severance in line with legal requirements and company policy, along with human resources support and benefits guidance. Western Union acknowledged in the message that the prolonged lack of detail had created uncertainty among staff. The company attributed part of the delay to the drawn-out closing of its planned acquisition of Intermex, a U.S.-based remittance firm, which it said had slowed integration planning and decisions on where to locate operations. The message also recognized 28 years of contributions by the company’s Costa Rica teams. The decision comes as Western Union accelerates cost cuts worldwide. Reporting second-quarter results on July 30, President and CEO Devin McGranahan said weaker-than-expected performance in the Americas retail business and the delayed Intermex deal had squeezed margins, requiring the company to “accelerate cost reductions more forcefully in the second half of the year.” Quarterly revenue came in at $1 billion, down 1% from a year earlier, while adjusted earnings per share fell to $0.31 from $0.42. On the company’s earnings call, McGranahan outlined a restructuring program called Beyond Efficiency, which targets $50 million in annualized savings by the end of 2026 and $200 million by the end of 2027. He cited the transfer of agent onboarding for the Asia-Pacific region from Lithuania and Costa Rica to the company’s Manila operations center as one example of the approach. The $500 million Intermex acquisition, announced in August 2025 and initially expected to close in mid-2026, remains pending. In August, California’s financial regulator suspended an approval extension for the deal to conduct further review, according to a joint statement from the two companies. The announcement follows other job reductions at multinational employers in Costa Rica this year, including Boston Scientific’s confirmed layoffs and a new round of layoffs at Amazon. Western Union said it will share further details on which positions will move and which will stay as planning progresses.