ENGLEWOOD, Colo., April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Western Union Financial
Services International, a division of First Data Corporation (NYSE: FDC),
announced today that it has selected San Jose, Costa Rica as the location for
its new Latin American Regional Operations Center.
    The center will provide telephone service support to Western Union(R)
Money Transfer agents throughout Central America, South America and the
Caribbean.  Western Union is a worldwide leader in electronic money transfer
services.  The company transfers funds for consumers and businesses to more
than 40,000 locations in 150 countries around the world.
    Western Union will begin its Costa Rica operations in July in an 8,000
square foot temporary facility provided by the Costa Rican Investment and
Trade Development Board (CINDE), the independent, non-profit economic
development association affiliated with the country's government.  The
temporary center will be located in the CINDE offices in San Jose.
    Western Union will open the temporary center with 30 - 40 employees, most
hired locally.  The employees will assist Western Union agents with all facets
of their money transfer business, including technical support, transaction
settlement, and transaction assistance.  The center will hire employees to
provide service in a variety of languages, including Spanish, Portuguese,
French and English.  Most employees will be at least bilingual.
    Western Union expects to locate and open its own permanent facility in San
Jose within approximately 12 months.  The permanent facility, which is
expected to range from 20,000 to 30,000 square feet, could employ as many as
100 people in three years.
    "There were many factors that attracted Western Union to Costa Rica," said
Edward J. Fuhrman, president, Western Union Financial Services International.
"The combination of a high quality, culturally diverse work force, a large
multilingual population, and a 95 percent literacy rate supported by a high
degree of secondary and tertiary education make Costa Rica a very attractive
country in which to establish an operations center.  The implementation of the
Latin American Regional Operations Center will be a significant step in our
ever present effort to elevate our service quality on a global basis."
    Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres was enthusiastic with Western
Union's decision to set up its Latin American and Caribbean Regional
Operations Center in Costa Rica.  He stressed it is very significant that a
prestigious company such as Western Union, with the advice of the Arthur
Andersen consulting group, had chosen Costa Rica.  This important decision
ratifies the increasing preeminence of this Central American country as the
capital of high technology in the entire Latin American region.  In President
Figueres' view, this alliance between Western Union and Costa Rica will be of
great impact to the regional and global money transfer business and other
financial services.
    According to Fuhrman, the need to open an operations center in Latin
America resulted from the tremendous growth of Western Union's international
money transfer business, which grew by more than 50 percent in the first
quarter over the same period last year.  Western Union completed more than 48
million money transfer transactions in 1997.
    Costa Rica was selected over several other countries in Latin America.
Western Union is being assisted by CINDE, which advises foreign investors on
development and investment in Costa Rica.
    Costa Rica is the second of three operations centers Western Union has
planned to support its international money transfer business.  The company's
first international operations center in Brussels, which serves Europe, the
Middle East and Africa, was opened in September 1997.  The site of the third
center, which will serve the Asia/Pacific region, is in the final stages of
selection.

    Western Union Money Transfer Service
    To use the service, remitters bring their funds to one of Western Union's
worldwide sending locations and complete a brief form.  The remitter pays the
transfer amount and a fee to the local agent who enters the transaction
information into Western Union's secure worldwide computer system.
    Minutes later, the funds are available for pick-up by the recipient, who
must complete a similar form and show proper identification, in any of 40,000
other Western Union locations worldwide.  Funds are usually paid in local
currency, subject to exchange and local restrictions.  Anyone can use the
service and no bank account or credit card is required.
    In Costa Rica, Western Union has more than 40 agent locations in 32
cities, including seven locations in San Jose.  Western Union's primary Costa
Rica agent is Airpak, an international courier.
    Famous for its pioneering telegraph services, the original Western Union
dates back to 1851.  The company is credited with having introduced the age of
electronic commerce by beginning the first electronic money transfer service
in 1871.  In 1995, the company became a subsidiary of First Data Corporation.
    Founded in 1992 and based in Hackensack, New Jersey, U.S.A., First Data is
a global leader in payment systems, electronic commerce and information
management products and services.  First Data and its principal operating
units process the information that allows millions of consumers to pay for
goods and services by credit, debit or smart card at the point of sale or over
the Internet, by check, or wire money.

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