SANTIAGO, Chile, June 27, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) informs that it signed a five-year agreement with Evertec, Inc. (NYSE: EVTC), a leading technology company in Latin America, which will provide processing services to the Bank's acquisition network, which will operate under the four-part model with all debit, credit and prepaid issuers.
Miguel Mata, General Manager for Banco Santander Chile, said “With Evertec’s credentials as a leading regional payment processing company, Santander will leverage our robust client base to achieve our strategic objective of increasing the coverage, depth and security of the payment methods in Chile, both face-to-face as well as in e-commerce. As a result of this initiative, Santander will accelerate the transformation of the payments market in Chile allowing any entrepreneur, merchant or business owner to have their own point-of-sale (POS) device to accept card payments in a more secure manner.”
Mata also asserted that "with this agreement a virtuous circle of competition will be generated that will allow transforming the payment market in Chile, enabling any entrepreneur or merchant to have their own POS to offer payment with cards to their customers, in a much safer environment." In our case, this also includes the imminent launch of SuperDigital, which will also permit more Chileans to access electronic payments, completing this virtuoso circle."
“Banco Santander has been preparing for this transformation for the last two years. Last April, the test phase began and at the end of this year, the Bank plans to install its first POS. By the first quarter of 2020, the Bank expects to have significant operations in this market, explained Mata.”
Under the agreement, Santander will have a complete, secure and efficient processing solution based in the cloud, which considers the acquisition platform, value-added solutions (e-commerce, mobile commerce and recurring payments), administrative services, and fraud prevention.
Mac Schuessler, President and Chief Executive Officer of Evertec said, “We are extremely pleased to provide our products and services to Banco Santander, the first bank to announce plans to open the Chilean payments market. We are confident that our platform and services, together with our team of experts in the processing and acquiring business, will drive innovation and accelerate market growth as market participants look for alternatives. This confirms our strategy of localizing our platform for key markets such as Chile, as well as the transition of our license products to processing products. As a processor with local capabilities, we believe we are well-positioned to meaningfully benefit as the market grows.”
About Banco Santander
Banco Santander Chile is the largest bank in the Chilean market in terms of loans and assets. As of March 31, 2019, the Bank had total assets for Ch$39,668 million, loans net of provisions of Ch$29,779 million, deposits of Ch$21,462 million and total equity of Ch$3,368 million. The Bank’s BIS ratio as of March 2019 was 13.6%, with a core capital ratio of 10.8%. Banco Santander Chile is one of the companies with the highest risk ratings in Latin America with an A1 rating from Moody's, A from Fitch, A from Standard and Poor's and A + from JCR. For more information visit: www.santander.cl
About Evertec
EVERTEC, Inc. (NYSE: EVTC) is a leading full-service transaction processing business in Latin America, providing a broad range of merchant acquiring, payment processing and business solutions services. The Company manages a system of electronic payment networks that process more than two billion transactions annually and offers a comprehensive suite of services for core bank processing, cash processing and technology outsourcing. In addition, Evertec owns and operates the ATH® network, one of the leading personal identification number (“PIN”) debit networks in Latin America. Based in Puerto Rico, the Company operates in 26 Latin American countries and serves a diversified customer base of leading financial institutions, merchants, corporations and government agencies with “mission-critical” technology solutions. For more information, visit www.evertecinc.com.