SIA-SSB wins Austrian cards contract; plans Warsaw, Moscow offices

publication date: Sep 17, 2008

Sinsys, a majority-owned subsidiary of SIA-SSB, has won a five-year card issuing processing contract with Austria's PayLife Bank. The five-year contract will run from mid-2010 and will replace the bank's current arrangement with First Data. Separately, SIA-SSB says it plans to open an office in Warsaw next month, to be followed next year by Moscow and Kiev. In April, Swiss cards processor Telekurs Card Solutions announced it had won a similar five-year contract for the card acquiring processing that is also currently handled by First Data.

Sinsys is a joint-venture between SIA-SSB and Atos Worldline. SIA-SSB CEO Renzo Vanetti says that geographic expansion is a key part of the company's strategy, and that following on from its recent acquisition of Hungarian card processor GBC, it sees a lot of growth potential in Central and Eastern Europe. The company will open its Poland office in Warsaw at the start of October, and it is looking to establish a presence in Russia and Ukraine next year.

SIA-SSB group consists of a number of companies specialising in network services, card processing, payment systems and capital markets back-office and surveillance systems. The company is currently majority owned by two Italian banks, Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit Group, with a number of other bank and telecom owners.

This year it appointed Citi as an advisor to help it find parties interested in buying the company. SIA-SSB declined to comment on the issue, but other sources have told Finextra that the process is ongoing.