BNP Paribas Fortis further expands its offering to Belgian merchants with a wide range of acquiring services.
The bank thus launched the first alternative in the Belgian market that accepts, in addition of Maestro, Bancontact/Mister Cash payments. These services will be provided by Six Payment Services, a leading European payments provider.
BNP Paribas Fortis and SIX Payment Services (SIX) are entering into a unique partnership, targeted to servicing merchants of all sizes and industries in Belgium. BNP Paribas Fortis and SIX will be providing merchants with comprehensive payment solutions, from payment terminals to acquiring services. It is the intention to be the first real alternative in the Belgian market for Bancontact/Mister Cash (BC/MC). BNP Paribas Fortis will leverage the model that SIX has developed for banks who wish to extend their services into the acquiring business.
The opening of Belgium’s BC/MC card scheme ends a monopoly situation in the Belgian card payment market. Via the new partnership, merchants will enjoy a “one stop shopping offer” with high quality services and payment terminals, which will be independent from their current provider.
The payment terminals accept BC/MC debit cards as well as credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB, CUP, Diners) and are supported by a full range of value added services. Merchants will benefit from simple, fast and secure payments at a competitive pricing for card transactions accepted via fixed, portable or mobile payment terminals. They will receive a daily integrated report that provides a comprehensive overview of all transactions.
The cooperation is an acquiring partnership, in which the bank holds full customer ownership. Nearly 900 BNP Paribas Fortis branches are customer touch-points for merchants. BNP Paribas Fortis can fully leverage the economies of scale that stem from the merchant base of 180,000 that SIX is providing integrated services for to-date, whilst at the same time avoiding huge investments and also the vast effort of scheme compliance.
For SIX, the partnership with BNP Paribas Fortis is another step towards enlarging its footprint in Europe. Being the provider of the SEPA switch for Bancontact/MisterCash and processing partner of many banks, SIX has been a player on the Belgium market since 2005. “We observe the evolution of the payment market: throughout Europe, banks are moving toward Acquiring, which is traditionally a core competence of SIX. BNP Paribas Fortis was our partner of choice in Belgium, its huge branch network is an ideal gateway to addressing merchants on a broad level”, says Luc Holper, Head Market Development, SIX Payment Services. By signing up with BNP Paribas Fortis, Belgian merchants can benefit from the vast acquiring and enabling expertise of SIX and its services delivered on a robust and reliable platform.
The partnership allows BNP Paribas Fortis to deepen its customer relationship by expanding the financial services offer with solutions to accept card payments. Gunter Uytterhoeven, Director Marketing at BNP Paribas Fortis, says: “Merchants will enjoy the benefits of having a single partner for all of their payments and collections needs. We’re happy to be able expand our offering for merchant customers with the help of SIX, as we’ve got a similar understanding of service excellence. This new partnership will be a key element to support the BNP Paribas Fortis service range and complements the innovative services that were launched earlier this year.”
Press contacts
BNP Paribas Fortis
Hilde Junius, head of Media Relations +32 2 565 47 37 hilde.junius@bnpparibasfortis.com
Valéry Halloy, press officer +32 2 565 46 50 valery.halloy@bnpparibasfortis.com
SIX Payment Services
Susanne Stöger, head PR & Internal Communications +43 664 619 66 00 susanne.stoeger@six-group.com
SIX
Jürg Schneider, Media Relations +41 58 399 2129 pressoffice@six-group.com
BNP Paribas Fortis (www.bnpparibasfortis.com) offers the Belgian market a comprehensive package of financial services for private individuals, the self-employed, professionals, SMEs and public organisations. In the insurance sector, BNP Paribas Fortis works closely with Belgian market leader AG Insurance. The bank also provides wealthy individuals, corporations and public and financial institutions with custom solutions for which it can draw on BNP Paribas’ know-how and international network.
BNP Paribas (http://www.bnpparibas.com/en) has a presence in 75 countries with more than 180,000 employees, including more than 140,000 in Europe. It ranks highly in its three core activities: Retail Banking, Investment Solutions and Corporate & Investment Banking. In Europe, the Group has four domestic markets (Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg) and BNP Paribas Personal Finance is the leader in consumer lending. BNP Paribas is rolling out its integrated retail banking model across Mediterranean basin countries, in Turkey, in Eastern Europe and a large network in the western part of the United States. In its Corporate & Investment Banking and Investment Solutions activities, BNP Paribas also enjoys top positions in Europe, a strong presence in the Americas and solid and fast-growing businesses in Asia-Pacific.
SIX Payment Services (www.six-payment-services.com) offers financial institutions and merchants secure, innovative services along the entire value chain of cashless payments. Our tailor-made solutions include settlement of domestic and international card and interbank payments. One of Europe’s largest card transaction processors and market leader in Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg, SIX Payment Services ensures that card-based payments in Switzerland and abroad are accepted and processed. Additional services range from Swiss Interbank Clearing to electronic billing and direct debit processing. With around 1,200 employees and 14 locations worldwide, SIX Payment Services supports clients in 33 different countries.
SIX (http://www.six-group.com/en/home.html) operates Switzerland’s financial market infrastructure and offers on a global scale comprehensive services in the areas of securities trading, clearing and settlement, as well as financial information and payment transactions. The company is owned by its users (approximately 140 banks of various size and orientation) and, with its workforce of more than 3‚700 employees and presence in 24 countries, generated an operating income of 1.58 billion Swiss francs and a Group net profit of CHF 210.2 million in 2013.