The National Australia Group (NAG) has standardised card-processing and payments for the UK, Ireland and Australia on a Base 2000 platform. The platform, from Georgia-based payments organisation Certegy, has been provided as part of an outsourcing agreement.
NAG signed the outsourcing agreement with Certegy in June 2000 to manage and process NAG's global credit card portfolio of 4.5 million consumer and business cards. The deal covered Australia, Ireland, the UK and New Zealand and is valued at more than $100 million over five years.
Larry Towe, executive vice president and chief operating officer, says: "True globalisation requires banks to operate from the same platform at all locations, no matter what language and currency are involved."
The UK and Ireland conversion was completed in April and included both Visa and Europay-branded cards from four NAG banks in three currencies.
The Australian conversion occurred over the weekend of July 7 and included Visa and MasterCard cards. And the conversion of the New Zealand NAG portfolio is scheduled for completion in early August.
When completed, the Base 2000 system will integrate transactions in five currencies from six banks and four countries. The Euro is one of the currencies included and will enhance NAG's capability to serve customers globally.
Certegy says it offers the first third-party card processing system that provides a single, global platform for a multinational card issuer.