Korea’s BC Card Acceptance To Expand With Discover Deal

South Korea-based card company BC Card plans soon to begin expanding where its card are accepted overseas after inking a deal with Discover Financial Service to share credit card networks (see story) , according to a BC Card statement. The move will enable BC Card holders to use their domestic cards in other countries, including the United States, Japan and Singapore the statement notes.

 Under the deal, the card company plans to issue a “BC Global Card” to replace current domestic cards through its member banks starting in June, the statement notes.

A spokesperson for the Credit Finance Association of Korea tells PaymentsSource the agreement represents a landmark deal for the Korean card industry through reduced service fees paid to international card networks. “Domestic card issuers typically pay 0.03% to 0.04% (of the sale) in royalties to networks such as Visa and MasterCard,” she says. “And they then tend to pass that charge to cardholders as a 1% transaction fee.”

According to the statement, BC Card expects to save up to 400 billion won (US$346.4 million or 244.7 million euros) over the next decade in service fees.