French banking firm Societe Generale has selected First Data International, a supplier of e-commerce and payment solutions, to provide card processing services to its international consumer finance division.
The partnership entitles First Data to provide new card and loan products to consumers across Europe, the Middle-East and Africa over the next 18 months. The collaboration of the two companies is in line with the French finance group’s approach to its comprehensive expansion program involving product mixes and customer service support tailored to meet the needs of individual local markets.
Under the terms of the agreement, the payment services company will provide Societe Generale credit card management and transaction processing together with a wide-range of value-added services. First Data’s Central European regional hub based in Slovakia will provide the core processing. Other services will be provided by a number of different locations.
In addition to the aforementioned services, First Data will also be providing services such as merchant management, call centre services and fraud monitoring.
The agreement establishes a significant expansion to the existing relationship between the two firms. Prior to the collaboration of this agreement, First data had been providing processing services to two of Societe Generale’s retail businesses outside France – BRD in Romania, since 2005, and Geniki in Greece, since 1997.