| | |  Business News 
US Bancorp, Santander Partner To Tap Mexico's Card Market
 Ken Parks - Dow Jones Newswires
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February 03, 2010
Mexico City - Elavon, the payment-processing arm of U.S. Bancorp, said Tuesday it has formed an alliance with Spanish banking giant Banco Santander SA to tap Mexico's growing card payment market.
"Expanding our global footprint into Latin America is in line with Elavon's global growth strategy," Chief Executive Stuart C. Harvey said in a statement.
Elavon said the agreement builds on its existing relationship with Santander in Spain, the United Kingdom and Puerto Rico. Santander controls Mexico's No. 4 bank, as measured by loans and deposits.
Under the terms of the marketing alliance, Santander and Elavon will offer acquiring services to the bank's existing and prospective merchants.
Elavon's merchant services include credit and debit card processing, electronic check services, gift cards, and cross-border acquiring.
Mexican banks have spent millions of dollars in recent years to provide card payment terminals to businesses of all sizes in a bid to get consumers to make purchases with credit and debit cards instead of cash.
According to the Bank of Mexico, the number of card payment terminals rose to 441,107 in the third quarter of 2009, from just 117,787 in the first quarter of 2002.
During the same period, the number of credit cards in circulation rose more than threefold to 22.3 million, while debit cards nearly doubled to 62.5 million, the central bank said.
Although credit card loans and the number of cards in circulation have fallen during the last 18 months due to a recession in the first half of 2009, banks expect consumer lending to recover along with the economy this year.
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