The news: Western Union will acquire International Money Express (Intermex) in a deal with a total equity and enterprise value of $500 million, per a press release. Our take: Increasing its retail footprint in the US positions can help Western Union capture more remittance outflow from the US, which we forecast to hit $92.58 billion this year.

Digitization has reduced consumers’ remittances costs worldwide, reshaping the competitive battlefield. Money transfer operators must follow new playbooks to monetize this $800 billion market.

Legacy players in the $774 billion remittance payments market risk being relegated by digital challengers—unless they improve their solutions.