MoneyGram's (MGI) Digital Suite Makes Marked Progress in March
MoneyGram International, Inc. MGI recently announced growth in cross-border transactions in its direct-to-consumer digital business MoneyGram Online (MGO). Its online platform is consistently gaining traction from strong customer demand, driven by its digital capabilities. This upside led to robust digital transaction growth for the company in March.
MoneyGram delivered 131% year-over-year higher cross-border transactions in its direct-to-consumer digital business during March. This upside was greater than 118% year-over-year cross-border transaction and revenue growth for February in its MGO business.
With its cross-border business gain in March, MoneyGram's business momentum witnessed the 15th consecutive month of triple-digit cross-border transaction growth in its direct-to-consumer digital business MoneyGram Online.
Following the COVID-19 outbreak, the company’s digital transactions gained an added impetus as more customers opted for digital channels to make their payments. This is clearly evident in the fourth quarter of 2020, which reflected a successful digital transformation journey of MoneyGram.
With US MGO generating highest money transfer transactions last December, robust demand for the MoneyGram app and strong customer retention rates provided a boost to the quarterly results. As a result, digital revenues attained a record figure of $57.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, which not only improved 79% year over year but also hit a milestone of $188 million for the full year.
The sound performance of the MGO business is further substantiated by the fourth-quarter results, per which cross-border digital transactions soared 152% year over year in the company’s MGO business.
A robust digital arm bodes well for MoneyGram as its revenues have been declining since 2017 through 2020. Revenues are also persistently affected by a higher compliance control strategy and stiff competition.
The company began laying the groundwork for its digital transformation four years ago to embrace the rapid changes brought by the integration of technology in the remittance industry. Its consumer direct channel MGO is the largest component of its overall digital business and a steady catalyst for customer acquisitions.
Consumer demand for the company’s mobile app is constantly skyrocketing and 85% of its online transactions is now done via mobile devices. This business continues to be a significant driver of profitability as the company is quickly scaling it up.
With the outbreak of COVID-19, the company also saw a marked shift in the origination of transactions. Notably, its digital transactions represent 30% of the total money transfer transactions and its global MGO business is the single largest originator of transactions.
Via its digital business, the company is exploring new geographies and continuously wooing a completely new customer base.
With several fintech players, such as PayPal Holdings, Inc. PYPL, Square Inc. SQ and others offering similar services at affordable rates, competition for MoneyGram has naturally intensified over all these years. Its close peer Western Union Co. WU is also facing the same rivalry and has been chasing technological investments over time to lead the pack.
Year to date, the stock has rallied 26.4% compared with its industry’s growth of 8.8%.
MoneyGram carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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