Banque Invik buys 48.5% stake in alphyra subsdiary Smart Transfer

Under the terms of the joint venture Banque Invik will acquire 48.5 percent of Smart Transfer Ltd, a subsidiary of alphyra. Smart Transfer provides a card based money transfer service in the UK. The share purchase is conditioned upon the approval of the Luxembourg financial supervisory authority.

Smart Transfer offers an easy, quick and cheap service to send money all over the world. The solu­tion consists of two cards, one for the sender and one for the receiver of funds. The sender gives the receiver card to the person he wants to send money to. The sender can load money at payzone's 28,000 payment terminals in the UK. The receiver will have the money available immediately and can withdraw money from ATM's or use the card as a normal debit card in shops all over the world.

Smart Transfer today operates in the UK but will expand the services in other European countries in the near future. alphyra is the owner of payzone, Europe's largest independent cash acceptance network with headquarter in Dublin, operating in 20 countries across Europe, and with a network of 150,000 retailers.

Anders Fällman, President and CEO of Invik & Co AB comments: "The card operations within Banque Invik has developed favorably and Smart Transfer will enable a further expansion of Banque Invik's card operations in Europe. Money transfer services are growing rapidly and together with alphyra, the operator of Europe's largest cash acceptance network, we will offer competitive money transfer services".

John Nagle, CEO of alphyra comments: "The ability for everyday people to transfer money has lagged the recent increased cross-border human movement. This joint venture goes some way towards readdressing the balance, providing a solution that is as simple and safe, as it is affordable."