Travelex set to take emerging payment technology across Asia Pacific
November 21, 2007
Today foreign exchange specialist Travelex strengthens its Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) offering for Asia Pacific with agreement to acquire Pulse Pos Pty Ltd a subsidiary of Pulse International, a company with whom it has had an alliance since 2004. The strategic purchase will enable Travelex to deploy Australian-developed Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) technology across Asia Pacific.
The technology, which instantly recognises foreign credit cards, allows retail and online merchants to offer foreign cardholders the option of paying in the cardholder’s home currency. It also allows financial institutions to DCC-enable their ATMs, providing cardholders with fixed withdrawal information in their home currency.
Graham Perry, Regional Divisional Director, Travelex Outsourcing said; Being a global player, Travelex is well positioned to drive multi-currency transactions around the world. Interest in our DCC offering is building steadily; we already have over 1000 merchants using the service in Australia and an alliance with ANZ and the National Bank in New Zealand. With this transaction we add unique and wholly owned DCC processing capabilities that will allow us to develop the business throughout the Asia Pacific region, he said.
Through partnering with Travelex, banks will have the capacity to offer their merchants particularly those servicing international travellers a DCC capability which provides foreign visitors with price certainty and confidence at point of sale.
Combined with enabling banks to offer an added value service to their merchant customers, the technology would also provide both banks and merchants with a new revenue stream Mr Perry said.
Pulse International, established in 2000, is the largest provider of DCC and multi-currency switching services in Australia. Mr Brian Sherman AM, Chairman of Pulse International said: I am delighted with the Travelex transaction. Pulse first deployed DCC on EFTPOS in 2004 and Travelex and Pulse developed an alliance to provide multi-currency and DCC ATM, EFTPOS and web capabilities to Australian merchants in that year.
Pulse Pos Pty Ltd will be renamed Travelex Outsourcing Pty Ltd. Pulse International will continue with its transaction processing and switching business and will retain the whole of the ATM component of its business, providing transaction processing and related services in respect of approximately 2,000 ATMs in Australia. Pulse International’s ATM business is not part of the transaction.
