Discover Financial Services continues to expand its presence internationally. In its latest move, the card company announced July 8 an alliance with Serbian payment network DinaCard.
The partnership enables DinaCard cardholders to use the Discover, Diners Club International and Pulse networks for all international purchases and cash withdrawals outside of Serbia. A Discover spokesperson was unable to comment about the alliance by PaymentsSource deadline.
Founded in 2003, DinaCard is Serbia’s system of national payment cards operated by the National Payment Card Center, which is a division of the National Bank of Serbia. DinaCard is the largest card network in Serbia with 27 local issuing banks and 2.5 million cards.
Serbia’s recent lifting of international travel restrictions now enables DinaCard cardholders to use their cards at merchants and ATMs outside the country, Discover says in a news release. Participating issuing banks will replace their cards with ones that include the Discover, Diners Club and Pulse brand marks as they come up for renewal.
The partnership between Discover and DinaCard is another step in Discover’s goal to increase its services worldwide. Discover began adding card acceptance at ATMs and merchant locations in India, Europe and Canada last year and forged agreements with China UnionPay in 2005 and with Japan’s JCB Co. in 2006 (
Additionally, Discover earlier this year inked a deal with Global Payments Inc. that expanded Diners Club card acceptance in both Europe and Asia (see story). http://www.paymentssource.com/news/global-payments-deal-expanding-acceptance-diners-3001037-1.html
During the past few years, “Discover has been committed to expanding outside of the U.S.,” Gwenn Bézard, research director with Boston-based Aite Group LLC, tells PaymentsSource. The goal is to reach outside the company’s domestic market and build relationships around the world, turning the company into a global franchise, Bézard adds.
Because of overall company growth in the last few years, Discover is able to compete with Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide, Bézard says. A few years ago, Discover had far less merchant acceptance, “but that gap has been closed,” he explains.
Indeed, Riverwoods, Ill.-based Discover is working to close the gap for global acceptance, “and in five to 10 years, Discover will most likely be accepted at as many international merchants as Visa and MasterCard,” Bézard surmises.
