MoneyGram International is working to restore its financial transfer system after taking its operations offline several days ago due to a cybersecurity issue, the company said Monday.
The Dallas-based company is working with cybersecurity experts and law enforcement to resume normal business operations, it said in a social media post.
“We recognize the importance and urgency of this issue for our customers and partners,” MoneyGram said.
A spokesperson for MoneyGram could not immediately be reached for further comment.
In one post on Facebook, Massy Remittance Services warned customers in the Caribbean that MoneyGram services were down as of Saturday. Hundreds of MoneyGram outages were reported late Monday afternoon, according to Down detectorwhich tracks user reports of outages.
MoneyGram is widely used by immigrants across the United States to send payments to their home country and to pay bills. India and Mexico are the largest recipients of such transfers, respectively, according to to Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
Remittances from the U.S. to Mexico rose to a record $55.9 billion in 2022, according to the regional Fed bank, which largely attributed the growth to strong employment in U.S. construction, with the industry a top employer of Mexican migrants. The average monthly remittance from the US to Mexico was $390 in 2022, it found.
A investigation published by MoneyGram earlier this month found that nearly half of its customers send money across borders to help family members buy food, while more than a third plug money into urgent expenses.
MoneyGram serves more than 50 million people in more than 200 countries and territories each year and processes more than $200 billion annually, according to the company.