Global Payments Inc. will provide multi-currency processing services to merchants in the United States and Canada through a deal with Planet Payment Inc., the Atlanta-based merchant processor announced Jan. 18.
Global Payments is branding the service Global HomeCurrencyPay. Such services commonly are known as dynamic currency conversion.
“North America has many tourist-friendly cities where merchants can offer the choice of paying in the cardholder’s home currency, thereby allowing greater transparency and thus offering an incentive or advantage to their cardholders to make large purchases,” a Global Payments spokesperson tells PaymentsSource. Merchants in cities with large numbers of tourists, such as New York, Toronto, Vancouver and Los Angeles, will be among the first to be offered the service, the spokesperson says.
Cardholders shopping at participating merchants will have the option see the transactions displayed at the point of sale in their home currencies, Global Payments says. Global Payments says there is no set-up or recurring maintenance fees with the service. The processor says it will continue to settle merchant accounts in either U.S. or Canadian dollars.
Global Payments and New York-based Planet Payment have worked together since 2007, when Global Payments began offering Planet Payment services in Asia.
During a Jan. 6 conference call to discuss Global Payments’ fiscal second-quarter earnings, Paul R. Garcia, Global Payments chairman and CEO, cited dynamic currency conversion as a “meaningful” revenue generator in the Asia-Pacific region.
“It is rolled out aggressively, and it is generating some meaningful revenue,” Garcia told analysts.
The service’s full availability in the region means it will not be “as much of a mover in the future,” Garcia said.
Global Payments’ Asia-Pacific customers generated $36.5 million in revenue during the quarter, up 42.6% from $25.6 million a year earlier (
Pricing and availability for Global HomeCurrencyPay in North America was not available by PaymentsSource’s deadline.
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