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Costa Rica’s retail clothing and accessories store, Ekono, with 37 outlets throughout the country, announced this week an alliance with AirPak – Western Union, said the company in a press release.
The partnership will allow customers to access the Colorado, U.S.-based transnational Western Union’s domestic and international money wire services.
With this alliance, customers of Ekono will be able to access money wire services to more than 200 countries, and also make payments within Costa Rica, said Jonathan Rodriguez, Western Union’s Costa Rica commercial manager.
“Tiendas Ekono is an important and recognized chain in Costa Rica. Its 37 stores have an excellent geographical distribution. This allows us to develop a synergy and expand our network of services, making new channels available to our customers,” added Rodríguez.
Western Union is a major player in the remittances sector, in which workers in one country send money back to family in their home country. In Costa Rica, according to a report in the regional Vida y Exit business magazine, incoming remittances annually total approximately US$530 million, and outgoing remittances approximately US$300 million.
Money coming into Costa Rica in the form of remittances is mainly from Costa Rican immigrants living in the U.S. And the majority of remittances flowing out of Costa Rica are to Nicaragua.
