‘Shocked’ MoneyGram hits back at Post Office

MoneyGram said it is “shocked and disappointed” by Post Office portrayal on a contract breakdown, which saw money transfer services removed from thousands of branches.

The money transfer firm also confirmed that the UK is the only country it operates where services are yet to resume following a major cyber attack.

Earlier this week, Computer Weekly revealed that the Post Office gave subpostmasters a day’s notice before ending its contract to provide MoneyGram services in branches. The Post Office said the US-based financial services firm turned down an offer of a short contract extension from the Post Office.

But MoneyGram wrote directly to subpostmasters outlining its side of the story, in which it said it was “shocked and disappointed” by the Post Office announcement and believes it had a “binding agreement for a new 12-month extension with the Post Office”.

A MoneyGram spokesperson told Computer Weekly: “In response to [an] article in Computer Weekly, we’re disappointed to see how the UK Post [Office] has portrayed the situation.”

Fintech MoneyGram enables users to transfer money, pay bills and trade in cryptocurrencies. It was forced to suspend services in the wake of an ongoing cyber security incident.

The issue began on Friday 20 September, when customers began to report problems, but it was first identified as a simple network outage affecting connectivity.

The Post Office told subpostmasters on Monday that services were still unavailable across the thousands of Post Office branches around the UK, while the organisation ensures it understands “the protective measures that MoneyGram have implemented following the incident”.

A new contract was close to being agreed before the cyber incident. The Post Office told subpostmasters: “Post Office and MoneyGram have been in contract negotiations since June of this year and had expected to agree a new contract to roll on from 1 October 2024. The contracting process was in the final stages when, unfortunately, MoneyGram suffered the cyber attack.”

MoneyGram hit back in the letter to subpostmasters. It wrote: “Our cyber security experts have determined that the incident has no effect on our agents’ systems. We are pleased to report that we have resumed operations in every country outside the UK and are working diligently to resume operations here.

“It is unfortunate that the Post Office has taken this stance after our trusting partnership of over 25 years. We sincerely hope that we further the dialogue with the Post Office and can work with [subpostmasters] in the future.”