BNP Paribas Fortis and SIX Payment Services are promising to bust the Bancontact/Mister Cash monopoly in Belgium by launching their own one-stop payments shop for merchants, covering everything from terminals to acquiring services.
Bancontact/Mister Cash (BC/MC) has long dominated the Belgium payments market but the partners think they can provide a challenge by combining BNP Paribas Fortis's 180,000-strong merchant base with SIX's acquiring and enabling expertise and experience.
They will offer payment terminals that accept BC/MC debit cards as well as all credit cards. Merchant will get simple, fast and secure payments at a competitive pricing for card transactions accepted via fixed, portable or mobile payment terminals, says SIX. Clients will also receive a daily integrated report providing an overview of all transactions.
Gunter Uytterhoeven, director, marketing, BNP Paribas Fortis, says: "Merchants will enjoy the benefits of having a single partner for all of their payments and collections needs."
Luc Holper, head, market development, SIX Payment Services, adds: "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."
Separately, MasterCard has announced plans to roll out a new mobile payment system in Belgium in concert with the upgrade of merchant terminals to accept contactless payments. The technology has been developed in collaboration with several partners such as Mobistar, who will be implementing the payment system among its employees later this year, Oberthur Technologies, PrePay Solutions and Penrillian. The NFC-enabled-phone allows consumers to make everyday purchases by simply tapping at a contactless terminal at the merchant location.