However, at the same time, I am hopeful and I know that all my colleagues and all our partners in more than 200 countries, we will do their best to recover from the virus as soon as possible.
Starting with the big picture, our cross-border consumer-to-consumer or C2C business grew principal 28%, which was the highest quarterly growth in years and the third consecutive quarter with growth over 20%.
Total company revenue grew 2% on a constant currency basis, around a 300 basis points increase from declines in the third and fourth quarter of last year.
C2C revenues and transactions grew 4% and 9%, respectively, and both digital and retail revenue trends improved sequentially.
Revenues were up from the fourth quarter and grew 45% year-over-year to over $240 million, putting us on target to exceed $1 billion in 2021.
Digital comprised 34% of transactions and 23% of revenues for the C2C segment and was a key source of new customers and incremental profit.
This is the fourth consecutive quarter of transaction growth of 50% or more and average monthly active users growth of over 40%.
Wu.com led money transfer peers in mobile app downloads by a wide margin and grew principal 78% off of an already large base, which we believe is well ahead of the market.
Digital partnerships revenue more than doubled year-over-year, and it has exceeded our expectation over the past 18 months since we announced it in late 2019.
Starting with wu.com, we continue to invest in consumer acquisition and marketing, which drove 46% growth in average monthly active users for the first quarter.
During the quarter, we renewed agreements with 34 existing agents and added 41 new agents with favorable terms.
Over 50% of our global account payout transaction volume was delivered real time.
Our launch with Walmart is off to a good start, and we look forward to getting all 4,700 US locations up and running in the second quarter.
Given the strong customer trends, we have seen over the last year in our C2C business, including almost 9 million wu.com annual active users in 2020, the agenda for the rest of 2021 is largely centered around enhancing the customer experience.
According to the United Nations, there are more than 270 million migrant residents globally and many of them send remittances.
Factoring in remittance, recipients in home country, who also use our services and desire more options for financial services could more than double the potential customer base to over 0.5 billion people.
According to our 2019 new American economy study, migrants represented $1.3 trillion of spending power in the US alone.
Revenue of $1.2 billion increased 2% on both a reported and constant currency basis.
In the C2C segment, revenue increased 4% on a reported basis or 2% constant currency with transaction growth partially offset by mix.
B2C transactions grew 9% for the quarter, led by 77% transaction growth in digital money transfer.
Total C2C cross-border principal increased 28% on a reported basis or 26% constant currency, driven by growth in digital money transfer and retail.
Total C2C principal per transaction or PPT was up 15% or 12% constant currency led by retail and wu.com.
Digital money transfer revenues, which include wu.com and digital partnerships, increased 45% on a reported basis or 44% constant currency.
Revenue grew 38% or 37% constant currency on transaction growth of 55%.
Cross-border revenue was up 49% in the quarter.
North America revenue was flat on a reported basis or increased 1% constant currency on transaction growth of 1%.
Revenue in the Europe and CIS region increased 8% on a reported basis or 4% constant currency on transaction growth of 28%.
Revenue in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region increased 1% on a reported basis or was flat constant currency while transactions grew 13%.
Revenue growth in the Latin America and Caribbean region continued to improve sequentially and was up 3% or 8% constant currency on transaction declines of 8%.
Revenue in the APAC region increased 9% on a reported basis or 3% constant currency, led by strength in Australia.
Transactions declined 2%, primarily driven by the Philippines domestic business, which has limited impact on revenue.
Business Solutions revenue decreased 2% on a reported basis or 8% constant currency as COVID-19 continue to impact certain verticals and hedging activity.
The segment represented 8% of company revenues in the quarter.
Other revenues represented 5% of total company revenues and declined 18% in the quarter.
Consolidated operating margin in the quarter was 19.2% compared to the prior year period margin of 19.6% on a GAAP basis and 20.5% on an adjusted basis, which excluded costs related to our restructuring program.
Foreign exchange hedges had a negative impact of $4 million on operating profit in the quarter and a benefit of $10 million in the prior year period.
B2C operating margin was 19.6% compared to 20.7% in the prior year period.
Given that our C2C segment comprises almost 90% of total company operating income, the decrease in operating margin was driven by the same factors that impacted total company margin.
Business Solutions operating margin was 13.1% in the quarter compared to 14.1% in the prior year period.
Other operating margin was 22.6% compared to 26.1% in the prior year period, with the decline primarily due to lower revenue.
The effective tax rate in the quarter was 10.4% compared to a 12.5% effective tax rate on both a GAAP and adjusted basis in the prior year period.
Earnings per share or earnings per share was $0.44 compared to the prior year period GAAP earnings per share of $0.42 and adjusted earnings per share of $0.44.
Cash flow from operating activities in the first quarter was $176 million.
Capital expenditures in the quarter were approximately $97 million driven by agent signing bonuses and should be in a normal range for the full year.
At the end of the quarter, we had cash of $1.5 billion and debt of $3.2 billion.
We returned $172 million to shareholders in the first quarter consisting of $97 million of dividends and $75 million in share repurchases.
The outstanding share count at quarter end was 410 million shares.
And we had $708 million remaining under our share repurchase authorization, which expires in December of this year.
We are also on track to achieve our digital revenue target exceeding $1 billion.
Operating margin is expected to be approximately 21.5%, reflecting revenue growth and benefits from our three year productivity program that we expect to generate approximately $150 million of annual savings by the end of 2022, partially offset by higher operating expenses and investments in strategic initiatives.
GAAP earnings per share for the year is now expected to be in a range of $2.06 to $2.16, including approximately a $0.06 net benefit in other income on an investment sale and debt retirement expenses that occurred early in the second quarter of 2021.
Adjusted EPS, which excludes those items, is expected to be in a range of $2 to $2.10.
Although, we still expect to generate more than $1 billion in digital money transfer revenues this year.

Summary:
Revenue of $1.2 billion increased 2% on both a reported and constant currency basis.
B2C transactions grew 9% for the quarter, led by 77% transaction growth in digital money transfer.
Earnings per share or earnings per share was $0.44 compared to the prior year period GAAP earnings per share of $0.42 and adjusted earnings per share of $0.44.
GAAP earnings per share for the year is now expected to be in a range of $2.06 to $2.16, including approximately a $0.06 net benefit in other income on an investment sale and debt retirement expenses that occurred early in the second quarter of 2021.
Adjusted EPS, which excludes those items, is expected to be in a range of $2 to $2.10.