MasterCard to Take a 52.5% Stake in Processing Company Strategic Payments Services

Joint Venture to Help Drive Processing Operations in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA)
Sydney and Singapore.- MasterCard today announced that it has entered into an agreement to increase its stake in Strategic Payments Services Pty Ltd (SPS), which will allow it to become the majority shareholder at 52.5%. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd will remain a key partner in the JV, retaining its existing shareholding, with Customers Ltd set to become a minority shareholder.

Since its inception, SPS has established itself as a key player in the processing services market in Australia, offering a modern and flexible acquiring processing platform. SPS has proven its stability and reliability, providing services to clients including Australia’s largest independent ATM deployer and a prominent Australian bank. MasterCard’s initial investment in the JV enabled it to build upon its position as a payments industry leader by developing an innovative, outsourced processing platform which provides clients with a viable alternative to building or upgrading in-house or legacy systems.

The agreement to increase the stake represents an extension of the partners’ original vision for SPS. “This agreement sends a strong message to the market about the value SPS delivers through its proven processing capabilities. SPS stands to further benefit from MasterCard’s payments expertise and network processing flexibility, enabling it to meet the needs of a broader client base,” said Greg Gillett, Chairman SPS Board.

“The SPS joint venture enables us to readily respond to our clients’ broader payment needs, offering market-leading technologies and locally relevant solutions. Processing is a major pillar of MasterCard’s strategy in establishing leadership and delivering real business value to our clients and merchant partners. As our clients seek to drive operational efficiencies and deliver innovative products to their clients, MasterCard will be able to support them with processing capabilities spanning multiple channels and product types. While we continue to develop technologies in-house, joint ventures and acquisitions have also become key to our global strategy for expansion, allowing us to harness new revenue streams and increase our speed-to-market, while maintaining cost efficiencies,” said Shuan Ghaidan, Group Head Customer Delivery, APMEA, MasterCard Worldwide.

SPS’ head office will remain in Sydney and it will work closely with MasterCard’s APMEA team to deliver and support regional processing solutions for financial institutions, merchants and other processors. SPS will benefit from world-class payment processing delivered through the MasterCard Worldwide Network, enabling seamless connectivity for both domestic and global clients.