Western Union Company, the one-time pioneer in money transfer, is continuing its push to be a pioneer in the future of money transfer by expanding its mobile offerings. The company announced enhancements to its Western Union Speedpay service that will allow billers to send electronic bills to customers' smartphones and tablets, and let those consumers pay their bills directly from their mobile devices with a single click.

"Western Union is dedicated to providing billers with robust bill pay solutions, while giving consumers a variety of user-friendly options to receive and pay their bills," said David Shapiro, SVP of payments at Western Union.

Shapiro said Western Union's "Payments Money Mindset Index" showed that consumers are looking for a wider range of payment options from billers.

The new eBill payment and presentment solution lets billers like utility, insurance and mortgage companies reach customers who prefer to access email from their mobile devices. With EBPP, those consumers receive their bills as a simple, secure email attachment that can be accessed with one click, and then paid with a single click, as well.

EBill presentment specialist Striata helped Western Union with the Speedpay enhancements. The services will operate on multiple platforms and devices, Western Union said, including Android, Blackberry and iOS devices.

"Email delivery of bills is ideally suited to the mobile channel," said Striata COO Garin Toren. "Through an encrypted attachment, recipients are able to open, view and pay their electronic bills on any email-capable mobile device or tablet, without the need to download any application or software — it's as simple as opening an email attachment."

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