Is he saying this, because he is invested with Abra? Western Union is not sitting on their hands in regards to crypto currencies, they already partnered with BitPesa to compete with Bitcoin in the African market.
WU and MoneyGram will use crypto currencies {Possibly a Alt Coin like Ripple} to move the currencies, but for that they would need to change their whole business model.
Bitcoin or 3rd party remmitance providers will take a huge market share from them, but they will not replace them. It will take some time for people and merchants to get the hang of Bitcoin, and then the disruption will happen... but by that time, WU and MoneyGram would have shifted to a NEW business model to accommodate it.
They have too much vested interest to totally collapse and Die. { Not to mention capital reserve } ... We made them filthy rich.