PBS is taking over Danske Bank's agreements with merchants on the acceptance of international payment cards in Denmark and Sweden.
In Norway, PBS and Danske Bank will increase their co-operation on the service and support provided to customers. The agreement is in line with PBS's growth strategy and ensures that PBS will have a proper foundation on which to expand its activities in the Nordic market.
PBS (Payment Business Services) will take over the customer agreements with the 20,000 Nordic merchants with whom Danske Bank has had an agreement on the acceptance of international payment cards so far. With this purchase PBS acquires Danske Bank's acquiring activities of American Express in Denmark and of Visa and MasterCard in Sweden. The Danish customer agreements will be transferred to PBS on 11 December 2006 and the Swedish customer agreements in the beginning of 2007. In Norway, PBS and Danske Bank will increase their co-operation on the service and support provided to customers.
"The agreement is a natural extension of PBS's acquisition of PBS International on 1 January 2006 and supports PBS's growth strategy in the European payment card market. With this agreement PBS is provided with a strong foundation on which to expand its activities in Scandinavia," says Flemming L. Jensen, CEO, PBS.
Apart from the fact that PBS already handles payments from the almost 90,000 merchants that accept Dankort - the national debit card in Denmark - PBS has also entered into 30,000 customer agreements with merchants that accept international payment cards. The large majority of the merchants are located in the Danish market but PBS also has a number of international customers. It is an important parameter for merchants that they only need one supplier irrespective of the country in which their payment transactions take place.
"The agreement will be to the benefit of our customers because PBS has the volume to deliver a competitive product and the competence to further develop it. In the long term, customers may be able to use their American Express card in even more places than at present," says Mogens Søndergaard, Deputy Manager, Danske Bank.
As a consequence of the expansion into the Nordic market, PBS will establish an office in Stockholm in order to be able to support the new customers in the best possible way.