WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — A new remittance service will be available in Cuba because of increasingly relaxed US-Cuban relations, the Western Union Company announced in a press release.
"As the first US company with scale to move money from across the world to Cuba, we welcome the regulatory and policy changes put in place by the US government that allow us to offer these services," Western Union Vice President Odilon Almeida stated in the release on Monday.
In December 2014, President Barack Obama announced that remittances that support private business development in Cuba will no longer require a specific license from the US government. Existing trade and travel restrictions have eased since Obama announced the United States would normalize relations with Cuba then.
"Remittances reach 62 percent of Cuban households, sustain about 90 percent of the retail market and provide thousands of jobs," the company noted in the release.
According to United Nations population data cited by Western Union, an estimated 1.4 million Cubans live outside their country.
Under the new practice, however, Cuban citizens living abroad as well as non-Cubans will be permitted to transfer money to the island nation by using the cross-border money transfer system already available in other countries, Western Union pointed out.
The company also said it expects services to be expanded to Cuba in the second quarter of 2016.
