GHL (Thailand), Thanachart Bank Launch Merchant Acquiring Service

KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 (Bernama) -- GHL System Bhd's subsidiary GHL (Thailand) Co Ltd and Thanachart Bank Public Co Ltd have signed an agreement to jointly develop and launch a third-party merchant acquiring service (TPA). In a statement Thursday, GHL Systems said the TPA service would enable GHL Thailand to directly contract with merchants to provide credit card payment services with Thanachart Bank as the underlying bank that will obtain authorisation for the credit card transactions. According to the statement, both GHL and Thanachart Bank hope to sign up more merchants to offer alternative payment solutions rather than traditional cash payments. "TPA is certainly a priority growth business for GHL Group especially in Thailand. "Thailand, like the most Asean countries, has an enormous small merchant segment which has been untapped for payments," said GHL Systems Group Chief Executive Officer Raj Lorenz. Meanwhile, Thanachart Bank Senior Vice President and Head of Credit Card and Personal Loan Products Jean-Marc Dallaire said the partnership with GHL allows the bank to create new markets by tapping into the vast majority of small merchants who only accept cash and cheques. "Also, by using lower cost card acceptance devices, we should be able to serve the very smallest merchants, something that has been challenging to achieve thus far," he said. The Thai market with its population of 65 million holds great potential for debit and credit card payment growth. There are presently only an estimated 300,000 electronic data capture and point-of-sale terminals servicing 18 million credit cards and 42 million debit cards issued to consumers. --BERNAMA