The expansion strengthens Sentenial's ability to deliver its award-winning SEPA solutions to the French and Spanish markets.

Ramp up for expansion into the French and Spanish markets began in early 2009. Sentenial hired several local payments experts who worked with its core product development team to tailor its existing solutions to the unique requirements of the French and Spanish payments markets. With localised solutions now ready for the market, Sentenial moved to establish sales and support offices.

Local managers, Thierry Kolton and Roland Wouters, have been working with Sentenial since late 2009 to ensure that clients in the French and Spanish markets are provided with a strong local relationship manager in addition to local project support.

Sentenial brings two of its product lines to the French and Spanish markets. Origix, a hosted SEPA solution, enables banks to offer their customers a suite of bank branded value added services including mandate management and SEPA enrichment. EuroDebit includes complete end-to-end SEPA solutions as well as off-the-shelf 'light' offerings that provide rapid deployment options for banks looking to gain certainty over the size and timetable of their SEPA project.

According to Brian Hanrahan, EVP Sales and Product at Sentenial 'This was the right time to strengthen our presence in France and Spain because it became clear that these markets were underserved by providers with proven and comprehensive SEPA solutions. We are entering a new phase in the SEPA project, where banks are focusing on their customer proposition and related business opportunities. That is a development which suits Sentenial very well. Our investment programme during 2010 will extend our current operation in Amsterdam, and will open centres in a number of additional European countries.'