Western Union announced this week that the company decided to stop using Myawaddy Bank, owned by the military, as one of its agents. The bank has come under fire for the relationship given that the Myanmar military has been accused by the United Nations of genocide.
The decision comes nearly three months after Western Union’s CEO Hikmet Ersek was featured in Directors & Boards about the release of the company’s first environmental, social and governance report.
After the story ran, Directors & Boards was contacted by Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, and a follow-up story about Western Union’s apparent ESG disconnect ran in Directors & Boards’ next issue.
Mark Farmaner credited Directors & Boards’ story for increasing the pressure on the company.