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Discover and Diners Club cardholders will be able to access at least 74,000 ATMs in Europe under the latest deal designed to increase the global reach of those brands. Belgium-based Trionis, which provides processing and switching services, signed the ATM acquiring deal with Pulse, an electronic funds transfer network owned by United States-based Discover Financial Services. Discover bought Diners Club International in April 2008. Banks from nine European countries, along with U.S. processor First Data Corp. and the European Savings Banks Group, own Trionis. Trionis "serves banks and networks" in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, a Trionis spokesperson tells CardLine Global. "Issuing cards other than the two well-known bankcard brands is becoming increasingly popular with issuer banks in Europe," the spokesperson says. "However, it does not always make sense for these issuers to spend a lot of money on building the required gateways, and this is where Trionis can act as a single-gateway provider." Further clarification on plans to issue cards was not immediately available Thursday. Trionis provides similar services for China UnionPay, American Express Co. and European-centered card schemes, the spokesperson says. The Trionis agreement is the latest "part of a global strategy to increase ATM acceptance of both Diners Club and Discover cards, necessitated by Discover Financial Services' acquisition of Diners Club in 2008," a Pulse spokesperson tells CardLine Global. "Additional ATMs and over-the-counter cash-access locations will be added on an ongoing basis as Pulse continues to build the global network for Diners Club and Discover cardmembers." Earlier this year, Pulse signed an ATM-acceptance deal with Interac, Canada's only debit card network (CardLine Global, 3 Sept.). That came after Venture Infotek Global Pvt. Ltd., an Indian processor, signed a long-term merchant-acquiring deal to acquire Diners Club and Discover transactions (CardLine Global, 20 Aug). In March, Multipay AG, a Swiss company, agreed to acquire and process transactions for Diners Club and Discover credit cards (CardLine Global, 17 Aug).
