BC Card to process payments for Discover's partners

BC Card CEO Lee Mun-whan, right, and Discover Financial Services Senior Vice President Joe Hurley pose after signing an agreement for business partnership at the latter's headquarters in Riverwoods, Illinois, Monday. / Courtesy of BC Card

By Kim Bo-eun

BC Card said Tuesday it has signed a partnership agreement with Discover Financial Services to exclusively process purchases made here with cards that are part of the latter's global payment network.

Discover Global Network is the American financial services company's integrated global network, with partners such as Discover Network, Diners Club International and Pulse based in more than 15 countries including Korea, China, Japan, India, Brazil and Turkey.

It offers services at more than 4,400 merchant stores and more than 2 million ATMs worldwide.

BC Card CEO Lee Mun-whan and Discovery Senior Vice President Joe Hurley signed an agreement for the partnership at the latter's headquarters in Riverwoods, Illinois, Monday, local time.

Based on the partnership, BC Card, a Korean payment services provider, will offer services here for the customers of Discover and Diners Club cards that are issued overseas.

The services will be provided next year, after the necessary infrastructure is established.

BC Card will process purchases made at its merchant stores with cards issued by global firms including Visa, Master Card, Union Pay and JCB.

"Based on BC Card's network of 3 million merchant stores, its processing and digital payment capabilities, we will strive to achieve our vision to become Asia's No.1 payment platform," Lee said.

BC Card earlier partnered with Discover in 2010 and in 2011 started issuing "BC global card" which eliminates global transaction fees paid to network companies.