Verve International is a Nigerian Pan-African and multinational financial technology and payment card brand owned by
Interswitch
Interswitch is a leading African integrated payments and digital commerce platform company headquartered in Lagos. Founded in 2002 in Nigeria, as a transaction switching and processing company with national focus, Interswitch progressively evolve ...
Group.
History
Verve was founded in 2009, as a subsidiary of Interswitch. In 2013, it became an autonomous business entity in a restructuring exercise.
In 2005 the
Central Bank of Nigeria
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is the central bank and apex monetary authority of Nigeria established by the CBN Act of 1958 and commenced operations on 1 July 1959. The major regulatory objectives of the bank as stated in the CBN Act are t ...
(CBN) issued a mandate to the Nigerian payment industry that operators should migrate from magnetic strip to
EMV chip and PIN platform by 2009. The CBN migration policy was adopted to phase out the magnetic strip when the technology became susceptible to fraudulent transactions. It initially issued six million cards in partnership with several Nigerian banks.
Verve offers card products in Nigeria. In 2013 Verve was reported to have "over 20 million cards in circulation and access over 119,631
points of sale terminals, 11,287
ATMs
An automated teller machine (ATM) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, funds transfers, balance inquiries or account ...
and over 1,000 online merchants."
In March 2013,
Discover Financial Services
Discover Financial Services, Inc. was an American financial services company best known for its Discover Card. Founded in 1985, the company offered a wide range of banking and payment services, including checking and savings accounts, persona ...
partnered with Interswitch, which enabled the acceptance of Verve Cards across the Discover global network, covering 185 countries and territories as at the time of the agreement. The alliance also allowed acceptance of Discover and Diners Club International (DCI) Cards at Interswitch-enabled ATM and point-of-sale (POS) terminals for purchases in Nigeria.
A media report in 2015 said "Verve is issued by 40 banks in Africa with more than 30 million payment tokens in circulation." In October same year, Verve launched its entry into the East African payment market with strategic partnership with
Kenya Commercial Bank
KCB Bank Kenya Limited is a financial services provider headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. It is licensed as a commercial bank, by the Central Bank of Kenya, the national banking regulator. The bank has also been running an agency banking ...
(KCB) "to expand Verve Card acceptance and payment services in six key East African markets", namely: Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, South Sudan, Rwanda and Uganda.
See also
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Financial Technology
Financial technology (abbreviated as fintech) refers to the application of innovative technologies to products and services in the financial industry. This broad term encompasses a wide array of technological advancements in financial services, ...
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Online payment system
An e-commerce payment system (or an electronic payment system) facilitates the acceptance of electronic payment for offline transfer, also known as a subcomponent of electronic data interchange (EDI), e-commerce payment systems have become increa ...
References
Online payments
Nigerian brands
Technology companies of Nigeria
Electronic funds transfer
Payment service providers
Multinational companies based in Lagos
Corporate subsidiaries
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