WESTERN UNION, NEW YORK REACH $60M SETTLEMENT

Western Union Financial Services, a subsidiary of the Western Union Co. in Douglas County, said Thursday that it has reached a $60 million settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services in a long-running case in which its customers were scammed.

The New York agreement is tied to a larger $586 million payout agreement nearly a year ago with the U.S. government to settle allegations that the company failed to put in adequate safeguards to prevent scammers from defrauding its customers. The Federal Trade Commission alleged that Western Union received more than 550,000 complaints between 2004 and 2015 about scam-related money transfers that totaled more than $630 million.

“We share the New York Department of Financial Services’ goal of protecting consumers and the integrity of our global money transfer network,” the company said in a statement. “We have acknowledged that certain conduct in the 2004 to 2012 period fell short of that goal, but we have made substantial improvements since then as part of our commitment to continually enhance our compliance programs.”

Western Union said it has boosted its compliance spending by 200 percent over the past six years and that a fifth of its workforce is now focused on that task. The company had previously set aside $49 million to address potential claims out of New York, which will soften the financial hit it has to take.