Global Payments Adds Multicurrency Conversion for Point of Sale

Global Payments will begin offering merchants currency conversion services at their point of sale terminals through an integration with Planet Payment.

The Atlanta-based processor said the real-time currency conversion service, called HomeCurrencyPay, will facilitate conversions from U.S. dollars to 26 different currencies and will be available on three terminals manufactured by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Equinox Payments.

"Global Payments makes currency conversion easier for merchants by implementing a nontreasury model, which prevents merchants from having to open and manage a unique bank account for each international currency they wish to support," Gene Distler, Global Payments' vice president of product development, said in a press release. "HomeCurrencyPay also simplifies the process for the merchants' customers as international cardholders appreciate knowing the exact cost of the goods and services and the exchange rate prior to completing purchases."

New York-based Planet Payment's technology provides consumers with a consistent presentation of the currency type and purchase amount across the user interface, sales receipt and cardholder's statement and also includes U.S. dollar-based POS reporting to help merchants better reconcile transactions.

Planet Payment provides its currency conversion and processing services to domestic and international merchants through partnerships with the Chinese-based UnionPay card brand and with Visa, among others.