Equity moves to WAY4-based online card system

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Equity moves to WAY4-based online card system

Equity Bank has fully migrated to the WAY4 card management system from OpenWay Group of Belgium that allows M-Pesa account holders to withdraw money from the bank’s 550 Automated Teller Machines countrywide.

January 21, 2010

The WAY4 system, an online card management system, is designed for multi-institution and multi-currency transaction processing and with a capacity of 180,000 transactions per minute.

The system which received high rating by Gartner, which rates software in the world, also provides support for non-card transactions over multiple self service channels.

The new system is set to increase efficiency in Equity Bank Point of Sales outlets and ATMs in the region, the company said in a statement.

Speaking during the signing of the partnership with OpenWay Group, Equity Bank CEO James Mwangi said the system has capacity to host the combined network of Equity Bank branches, subsidiaries and other banks at reduced costs.

“The system not only gives Equity a niche in terms of competitiveness in cutting edge technology and card management, but allows speedy and efficient transaction process in real time, and for all currencies,” Mr Mwangi said. He said Equity was among the the first banks in the region that are able to handle regional inter-switching connectivity.

He added that the new switch system would come in handy with the recently launched partnership between Equity Bank and Safaricom that allows M-Pesa account holders to withdraw money from the bank’s 550 Automated Teller Machines countrywide.

Published in the Daily Nation magazine.

Equity Bank

Equity Bank of Kenya (www.equitybank.co.ke) is the largest and fastest growing bank in Kenya, with 4.5 million client accounts that constitute more than 54% of all client accounts in the entire country. The bank also has branches in Uganda and South Sudan. Equity Bank has a reputation as an innovator in banking and financial services.

http://www.equitybank.co.ke

M-PESA

M-PESA is the first Kenyan commercial mobile payment and transfer system, created in March 2007 by Safaricom with the support of Vodafone. The system was created for people who don’t use bank services. This innovative project turned out to be in high demand on the African market. According to information as of March 2010, M-PESA has over 9.5 million subscribers, served by 17,500 agents.

http://www.safaricom.co.ke

OpenWay Group

OpenWay Group (www.openwaygroup.com) – is a recognized leader in software solutions for issuing and acquiring bankcards, payment processing, remote banking service and financial transaction routing (rated as "strong positive" by Gartner since 2009*. The customer-centric WAY4 solution successfully operates in 110 banks, processing companies and telecoms in Europe, America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, in Russia and the CIS.

WAY4 is a flexible processing platform for all types of bankcards, deposits, credits, current accounts, mobile money and other financial products; payment gateways, for building virtual banks with a wide range of financial services, targeted marketing campaigns and cross-sales in ATM networks, kiosks, through the Internet, mobile phones and other channels.

Based on open platform clusters, WAY4 works 24x7 and scales from compact to high-end systems supporting more than 3000 TPS and 150 million cards.

WAY4 is certified by MasterCard, Visa, AMEX, Diners Club, JCB, CUP and PCI SSC (PA-DSS compliant).

* The reports “MarketScope for Multiregional Card Management Software” by Kristin R. Moyer, 27.05.2009 and 22.06.2010. The MarketScope is copyrighted 2009 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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www.openwaygroup.com
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