September 20, 2012
Euronet Worldwide Inc. has announced the addition of two new countries to its portfolio of IAD networks — Spain and Italy. These represent Euronet's first IAD network deployments to be arranged without a sponsor bank.
Euronet's EFT presence in these countries was first made possible by the European Payment Service Directive e-money license granted to the company in 2011. The combination of the PSD license and approval for direct membership with Visa and MasterCard allows Euronet to acquire ATM debit and credit card transactions without the auspices of a local bank.
"Euronet is an industry leader in ATM deployment with 18 years of proven operating excellence," said Nikos Fountas, managing director of Euronet's EFT Europe division. "Using our PSD license, we are now able to bring our experience to new markets without dependency on sponsor banks, thereby retaining control of the entire implementation process and shortening the lead time required to enter a new market."
Euronet's latest IAD market entries increase the company's presence in Europe to a total of 10 countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, and Ukraine.
Euronet's global payment network now includes 17,048 ATMs and approximately 69,000 EFT POS terminals under management in 34 countries. The company also provides a prepaid processing network of approximately 617,000 POS terminals at approximately 297,000 retailer locations in 29 countries, and a consumer-to-consumer money transfer network of approximately 158,000 locations serving 133 countries.
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