SIX Payments extends 5-year deal with Bancontact

June 18, 2018

SIX Payment Services has extended its partnership with Bancontact, continuing a deal which has lasted five years.

Belgian-based digital card payment developer Bancontact has signed a new agreement which will see SIX Payment Services continue to operate and develop the Bancontact Scheme Switch.

Bancontact is a card scheme which has more than 15 million debit cards in circulation, helping to complete 1.4 billion transactions annually. The Android and iOS app, is a digital debit card that enables users to make payments via their smartphone through contactless POS terminals.

Its services help to support online payments, money transfers to friends, bill and invoice payments and paying in stores. To pay bills through the mobile app, a user scans the QR card, enters their pin and the payment is completed.

In 2011, the company made the Switch Scheme SEPA compliant and the following year, it partnered with SIX to build and operate the Bancontact Scheme Switch. The service links issuers and acquirers to ensure all authorisation and clearing messaging is completed correctly. Through SEPA, the market has allowed more entrants enter the space and compete fairly.

SIX Payment Services supports a range of industries with commercial acquiring and financial processing. Its services include payment terminals, card acceptance, online payments, mobile payments, omni-channel solutions, and electronic invoices, among others. The company has a net revenue estimate of €530m for 2019, and is present in six countries.

Bancontact CEO Kim Van Esbroeck, said, “We are delighted to extend our mutually beneficial collaboration with SIX Payment Services. We and our customers will continue to experience the robustness and stability of their state of the art processing platform as well as the proactive customer service of SIX – both are fundamental elements of a reliable technology partnership.”

Earlier in the year, SIX Payment’s formed a strategic partnership with European payments company Worldline. The deal saw SIX Payments acquire 49.1 new shares, around 27 per cent of the capital. SIX payments hopes to combine both companies technology to create Europe’s biggest payment provider.