Global Payments and “la Caixa,” the largest retail bank in Spain, have announced they are forming a merchant acquiring and payment processing joint venture in Spain. “la Caixa”, headquartered in Barcelona, was founded over a century ago, and is the market leader in Spanish merchant acquiring with over 150,000 merchant outlets. “la Caixa” also has the largest consumer banking footprint in Spain with more than 5,000 branches, 10.5 million customers and a 21 percent market share in merchant acquiring.

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Netherlands company Margento maintains a mobile transaction service based on what it call “Data-over-Voice”, which essentially works the same as the French solution above – your phone transmits data via sound, which is read and decoded by a scanner at the point of sale. It has announced it is entering into a 50-50 joint venture with the services branch of multinational company Bertelsmann, Arvato Services. Margento and Arvato will be using the Data-over-Voice system for loyalty/coupon redemption, payments for products and services, balance top-up, mobile tickets, and electronic gift vouchers.

Via GoMo News

arvato services, the services arm of Bertelsmann’s arvato division, and Margento B.V., a technology company from the Netherlands, today announced the formation of a joint venture. The JV, headquartered in Munich, will offer customers comprehensive transaction and payment services via the mobile phone.

Margento will bring its proven transaction platform to the 50-50 joint venture, as well as its patented Data-Over-Voice (DOV) technology, while arvato services will invest in the JV and contribute its extensive expertise in Marketing, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Finance services.

“We are excited about opening up the German market for mobile transaction services with arvato as our partner,” said Margento CEO Gregor Breznik. arvato services’ managing director Mario Schwegler added: “The JV’s balanced mix of expertise in services and technology forms an outstanding basis for a nationwide implementation of mobile loyalty and payment services in Germany.”

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