China Merchants Bank to partner with Renren for new card
China Merchants Bank has teamed up with Renren, the China-based social networking internet platform that completed its US IPO at the beginning of May, to issue a new credit card. The new social credit card, co-branded as the Renren CMB credit card, will have additional social, location and mobile services and features.
“Social networking is increasingly penetrating many aspects of people’s lives,” said Joseph Chen, chairman and chief executive of Renren, in a statement. “Through this co-branded credit card programme, we see a business model we previously envisioned start to materialise, combining social, location and mobile services to make people’s lives more convenient, more informed and more fun.”
Users are able to access information about CMB and the services it offers through more than 10,000 of the bank’s merchant partners through Renren’s location-based services when they check in at these designated locations.
Bank Mandiri strengthens Ingenico relationship
Indonesia’s Bank Mandiri has further enhanced its partnership with global payment solutions provider, Ingenico, by ordering an additional 40,000 new payment terminals. The bank previously ordered an initial 15,000 units from Ingenico earlier this year. Ingenico, together with its Indonesia-based partner, Visionet, will deliver the payments terminals throughout this year and early 2012.
“We will continue to evaluate the expanding payment needs of Bank Mandiri and deliver our products and services ensuring we meet their future needs,” said Bradley Prentice, regional director for Southeast Asia at Ingenico, in a statement. “We consider Bank Mandiri as an important strategic partner in a fast growing market.”
Bank Mandiri aims to penetrate the retail market further by deploying up to 200,000 payment terminals throughout the country in the next few years.
Kookmin Bank connects to Eba Clearing’s payments service
South Korea’s Kookmin Bank has connected to the Eba Clearing Company’s Step1 euro commercial payments service. The Step1 service is designed for financial institutions that have a limited euro payments business.
“Connecting to Step1 has put us in a position to directly exchange euro transactions with all major players operating in Europe through one single and very cost-effective channel,” said Ki Hong Kim, managing director of Kookmin Bank International, in a statement. “The reach of the Step1 platform will help us further expand our euro payments business. At the same time, this one-channel approach will enable us to significantly streamline our underlying processes.”
