Christina Gold, a Dutch immigrant to Canada at the age of five, now relies on other immigrants sending money around the world as chief executive of Western Union.

She spent her early career at Avon, the cosmetics group. She rose quickly through the ranks to become head of its North American business. But when she was passed over for the chief executive's role in favour of a man, she left to head Excel Communications, a telecoms group. She joined Western Union as president in 2002 and has moved the company into new areas such as transferring money by mobile phone. In a video interview with FT.com, Ms Gold talked about remittances and immigration and financial regulation. Edited highlights appear below.