Tokyo : JCB International Co., Ltd. (JCBI), the international operations subsidiary of JCB, and European Merchant Services (EMS), a First Data Group company, are pleased to announce that EMS has started JCB merchant acquiring operations across the Netherlands.

EMS is a major European payments player located in the Netherlands. EMS holds acquiring licenses for all major debit and credit card brands and wishes to be able to offer further acceptance capabilities to their customers throughout Europe. This new partnership will further enhance the acceptance portfolio of JCB merchants throughout the Netherlands as EMS merchants will accept JCB cards starting in July 2014. This is an important partnership which enables JCBI to increase its presence in the market and for EMS to offer more payment products to its merchant customers.

JCBI has been continuously increasing its presence in Europe by expanding its merchant network. Currently, card members can pay with JCB card at about 26 million merchants worldwide including several million in Europe. The Netherlands is a strategically important country for JCBI as this is a major destination market for European JCB card members. The partnership with EMS will further enhance the acceptance of JCB at merchants across the Netherlands benefiting JCB card members visiting the region.

Ryuji Shinzawa, Executive Vice President, Head of Sales and Marketing Headquarters / Americas and EMEA of JCBI commented, “JCBI has been doing business in Europe for 32 years and we continue to grow the number of locations where our customers can use their cards. We are pleased to welcome EMS to the JCB network and I am sure that this new partnership will bring more benefit and convenience to both EMS and JCB card members.”

EMS is also very pleased to extend the card brands offered to its merchants in Europe. “We have recently seen increasing usage of international brand card of Asian visitors. We will expect the same for JCB, knowing that the number of Asian card members travelling with a business motive is increasing as well as the number of Asian people who visit Europe for touristic purposes. We are very happy to offer our merchants throughout the Netherlands the ability to accept JCB card. This will help them serve their customers even better,” commented Marc Dumortier, CEO EMS.