STRATEGIC PARTNERS
February 21, 2002
CINCINNATI -- Fifth Third Bancorp's data processing subsidiary, Midwest Payment Systems, will purchase Buffalo, N.Y.-based Integrated Delivery Technologies Inc. and its Cartel Network, an independent, national electronic banking and transaction processing system.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The purchase is expected to be complete in April.
Established in 1994, Cartel processes for 73 financial institutions. Through various reciprocal interchange, processing and marketing agreements, over 700 financial institutions have access to the network which is available at approximately 17,000 ATMs, POS terminals and point-of-banking terminals in the U.S.
Cartel also has a strong ATM placement business with multi-location retailers, including Tops Friendly Markets, Wegmans, Price Chopper, Drug Emporium, Stewarts, Shoprite and Delta Sonic. Cartel processes over one million transactions a month.
A subsidiary of Fifth Third Bank, MPS was ranked #1 EFT provider by Faulkner & Gray (March, 1999). MPS processes more than four billion ATM, POS and e-commerce transactions a year for more than 65,000 retail locations and financial institutions worldwide, including Federated Department Stores, The Kroger Co., Circuit City, Office Depot and CompUSA.
