TOKYO — JCB International Co., Ltd. (JCBI), the international operations subsidiary of JCB Co., Ltd., (referred to below as “JCB”) and ICCREA Banca S.p.A. (ICCREA) are proud to announce our partnership, aimed at strengthening acceptance of JCB cards in Italy, allowing both companies to focus on growing their businesses and sustaining customer satisfaction.
The agreement will allow the acceptance of JCB cards at all ICCREA POS terminals and for all Italian merchants who are customers of ICCREA. The network will involve 106 million JCB cards and an incipient number of 70,000 POS terminals, which will gradually increase up to 150,000.
This partnership will deliver two key outcomes: firstly, it will increase JCB’s throughput in the Italian network, adding value to the card acceptance network and providing greater convenience for JCB cardmembers; secondly, it will contribute to the growth of ICCREA, giving further opportunities and options to its customers across the country.
JCB and ICCREA are combining efforts in the ecommerce space, to ensure security standards are upheld, and will be partnering to ensure that J/Secure is utilized as its new payer authentication service.
The agreement underlines the role of ICCREA Group as a focal point for the development of the services in cooperation with external partners, providing Banche di Credito Cooperativo (BCC) banks and their customers with a further resource for the needs of JCB cardmembers. According to the Italian Government Tourist Board, in 2015, Italy welcomed more than 1 million arrivals from Japan; moreover, Japanese tourists turned out to be the “top spenders” (in comparison to other global tourists), with an average daily disbursement on holiday of EUR 193.00. ( http://www.enit.it/en/studies-and-research.html )
In previous years, the range of services JCB offers has grown and evolved, and so has its presence in the European market, providing customers with a safe and easy to use the payments system. Currently, JCB cards are accepted by the merchants worldwide*. Through the partnership with ICCREA, JCB will further develop the use and acceptance of cards in Italy by increasing its merchant base. The partnership also enhances brand visibility, for the benefit of customers.
Mr. Tsuyoshi Notani, Managing Director, JCB International (Europe) Ltd., said, “Italy is one of the most frequently visited destinations for Asian and European tourists and so it is a key market for us. In order to respond to customer needs, JCB has made efforts to expand merchant network across Italy. We are glad to welcome ICCREA as a new JCB partner because ICCREA can provide nationwide acceptance through their BCC network in Italy. JCB cardmembers will benefit from wider acceptance which will bring more convenience”.
Mr. Leonardo Rubattu, Iccrea Banca S.p.A. CEO said, “We, at Iccrea Banca S.p.A., are very satisfied with the agreement reached with a prestigious partner like JCB. First of all because we improve the quality of services provided to the BCC banks on behalf of JCB cardmembers visiting our country for business or leisure reasons. And also because we can enrich services offered by ICCREA in the electronic-money field for the BCC banks and their customers. And, finally, we foresee that this agreement will let ICCREA, one of the best players in Italy for acquiring services, gain a greater market share, providing another important tool for our net of commercial businesses under agreement”.