Western Union Ventures will be led by chief marketing officer Diane Scott, focussing on the development of new services and incorporating westernunion.com, pre-paid and the mobile money transfer operations.

The company has been steadily building its mobile services over the last few years, as it seeks to take advantage of the huge remittance market.

The unit will be one of three, with the other two housing Western Union's core consumer money transfer and bill payment services and business-to-business operations.

As part of the shake-up, David Yates, EVP, business development and innovation, is leaving the firm.

Hikmet Ersek, CEO, Western Union, says: "Western Union Ventures will allow us to build deeper relationships with existing and new consumers and to expand our portfolio with new services."