The launch marks the first international extension of Western Union's prepaid program outside of the United States with further expansion planned in coming months to Asia, Latin America and additional European countries.

"Western Union is a world leader in prepaid financial services, providing people with innovative, easy-to-use products and services," said Western Union Senior Vice President for Europe & CIS Jan Hillered. "We are committed to responding to the market's needs and that means providing prepaid products all over the world to help people take part in a global marketplace increasingly moving toward card and account-based transactions."

As one of the leading retailers of gift cards in the UK, WHSmith is now stocking one or both products at over 500 high street and travel stores across the country.

"WHSmith is pleased to be working with Western Union to bring its prepaid gift card and GoCash offering to the UK," said Ian Sanders, WHSmith Commercial Development Director. "We regularly look at providing our customers with additional products and services which complement our core product categories."

Just in time for the holiday season, Western Union, in collaboration with MasterCard, has launched the gift card which recipients can "buy here, and spend anywhere" and use at more than 32 million traditional and online stores in the UK and worldwide wherever the MasterCard Acceptance Mark is displayed. The Western Union MasterCard Gift Card is available in face value denominations of £30 or £50, and can be purchased for a one-time fee, other terms and conditions apply.

The Western Union MasterCard Gift Card, is the first product in its category offering a unique "Chip&PIN" function making it among the most secure gift cards available to the UK market. Western Union announced that an agreement with InComm, the industry leading marketer, distributor and technology innovator of stored-value gift and prepaid cards, makes way for the expansion of the Western Union GoCash service, an in-lane prepaid money-transfer service.

With the GoCash service, consumers have the option to select packages with any of three prepaid amounts ranging from £50; £100 and £200. GoCash cards can be used for both domestic and international money transfers. Once purchased, the sender will need to complete the transaction over the phone through a Western Union customer service representative and provide the money-transfer information to the receiver.