Madrid & Tokyo, Sep 25, 2020 - (ACN Newswire) - In June 2019, JCB International Co. Ltd., the international operations subsidiary of JCB Co., Ltd., and Banco Santander, through its subsidiary Santander Espana Merchant Services, partnered to support the growth of face-to-face transactions made by JCB cardmembers across Spain. Earlier this year, in March 2020, JCB and Banco Santander pivoted this collaboration to additionally support online exchange between JCB cardmembers and Banco Santander's e-commerce merchants. This extensive merchant list includes those in the retail, hospitality, transportation, travel, restaurant, and education sectors, to name a few.

In the past 4 years, JCB's annual sales volume has increased by approximately 37% globally, with over 140 million cardmembers and around 34 million merchants now accepting JCB cards. This JCB partnership with Banco Santander offers merchants and cardmembers a safe online purchase experience with JCB's J/Secure™1.0 (based on Visa's 3-D Secure Core Protocol Specifications).

This secure platform enhances the online shopping experience, as it identifies cardmembers by requesting a password. J/Secure™ 2.0 (based on the EMV 3-D Secure Protocol and Core Functions Specification) is set to follow the additional expansion in future.

Ruben Justel, Managing Director at Santander Espana Merchant Services, said, "This new step on our fruitful partnership with JCB contributes to our vision to help our merchants increase their sales by accepting the most demanded means of payments, in addition to reaching more international clients from JCB issuing countries."

Tsuyoshi Notani, Managing Director, JCB International (Europe) Ltd. said, "Partnering with Banco Santander has enabled us to further fulfil our promise to provide our card members with as many safe payment methods for international online transactions as possible. We are further delighted to be able to support Banco Santander's merchants, as they welcome e-commerce trade while we have seen a decline in face-to-face sales in recent months. It is our hope that this collaboration will support recovery of the payment industry, especially in Spain, after the global COVID-19 pandemic."

About JCB

JCB is a major global payment brand and a leading credit card issuer and acquirer in Japan. JCB launched its card business in Japan in 1961 and began expanding worldwide in 1981. Its acceptance network includes 34 million merchants in the world. JCB cards are now issued in 24 countries and territories with more than 140 million cardmembers. As part of its international growth strategy, JCB has formed alliances with hundreds of leading banks and financial institutions globally to increase merchant coverage and cardmember base. As a comprehensive payment solution provider, JCB commits to providing responsive and high-quality service and products to all customers worldwide. For more information, please visit: www.global.jcb/en/

About Banco Santander

Santander, with more than 160 years of history, is a retail bank operating in 10 main markets that obtained an attributable profit of EUR 7,810 million in 2018 - which is an increase of 18% on the previous year. Santander's European businesses serve 9.9 million loyal customers and 14.2 million digital customers, with 70,000 employees and 4,900 branches. In the first quarter, the bank achieved more than EUR 100 million in efficiencies with costs falling 5% in real terms year-on-year.

Contacts:

JCB International/EuropeContact: India StoneEmail: istone@jcbeurope.euPhone: +44 020 7087 4754

JCB (Head Office in Japan)Contact: Kumiko Kida, Ayaka NakajimaEmail: jcb-pr@jcb.co.jpPhone: +81 3 5778 8353

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