Established by BKM (The Interbank Card Center) as the first national card scheme of Turkey in April 2016, Turkey's Payment Method TROY goes international. Thanks to a new partnership with Discover Financial Services, TROY cards will be accepted in over 41 million merchant acceptance location and over 1.9 million ATM and cash access location in 185 countries. Following this partnership, which aims to extend the acceptance and availability of TROY cards, TROY members will be able to offer TROY cards that are acceptable for payment abroad.

CEO of BKM, Dr. Soner Canko underlined the importance of the agreement and said, "The countries, where cards are most use are the United States and European countries according to the BKM's 2016 data. In addition to that, almost half of the international transactions made by Turkish card users are online purchases via e-commerce sites while the remaining half is physical transactions abroad. As our business alliance with an international payment organization like Discover proves that our goal is always to meet the needs of our cardholders in the most accurate and fast manner.”

Dr. Canko said, Turkey's Payment Method TROY has a critical role in the Turkish card payment market and added: "In the last 20 years, Turkey has been rapidly adopting cards as the primary payment method and now approaching the goal of ‘cashless payment society'. Turkey has inspired the world of payment systems over the years and continues to do so with its ‘own brand'. The vision that TROY carries at its heart does not only focus on TROY itself but also focuses on the goal of expanding the whole card market and helping Turkey to become a cashless society. Thus, we are aiming to reach 20 million people who have not had a bank account or card until now with a local solution. We are expecting the number of TROY cards to reach 1 million by the end of the year.”

After two years of work, Turkey's Local Payment Method TROY became fully enabled with the support of all the banks. Currently, 16 institutions -15 of which are banks-, can offer cards with TROY logo and TROY cards are accepted in all POS devices, ATMs and e-commerce sites in Turkey.

“Turkey is an active travel market and today marks the start of increased card acceptance for Turkish tourists outside of Turkey, as well as for current Discover Global Network cardholders when visiting Turkey,” said Joe Hurley, senior vice president of global business development, Discover Global Network. “This agreement with BKM complements Discover's strategy of creating worldwide alliances that provide consumers with more choice when it comes to how they pay.”

Discover Global Network includes Discover, Diners Club International, PULSE and affiliated networks. It also includes network relationships with partners around the globe in Brazil, China, India, Japan, the Middle East, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Serbia, South Korea, Vietnam, and throughout Europe.