Verve International

Verve International
Company typePrivate company
IndustryFinancial Technology
Founded2009; 15 years ago (2009)
Headquarters
Lagos
,
Nigeria
Key people
Mitchell Elegbe, GMD/CEO
Charles Ifedi,
Mike Ogbalu III, CEO
ServicesPayment service provider
Websitemyverveworld.com

Verve International is a Nigerian Pan-African and multinational financial technology and payment card brand owned by Interswitch Group.[1]

History

Verve was founded in 2009, as a subsidiary of Interswitch. In 2013, it became an autonomous business entity in a restructuring exercise.[2]

In 2005 the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued a mandate to the Nigerian payment industry that operators should migrate from magnetic strip to EMV chip and PIN platform by 2009. The CBN migration policy was adopted to phase out the magnetic strip when the technology became susceptible to fraudulent transactions. It initially issued six million cards in partnership with several Nigerian banks.[3][4][5]

Verve offers card products in Nigeria. In 2013 Verve was reported to have "over 20 million cards in circulation and access over 119,631 points of sale terminals, 11,287 ATMs and over 1,000 online merchants."[6]

In March 2013, Discover Financial Services partnered with Interswitch, which enabled the acceptance of Verve Cards across the Discover global network, covering 185 countries and territories as at the time of the agreement. The alliance also allowed acceptance of Discover and Diners Club International (DCI) Cards at Interswitch-enabled ATM and point-of-sale (POS) terminals for purchases in Nigeria.[7][8][9][10][11]

A media report in 2015 said "Verve is issued by 40 banks in Africa with more than 30 million payment tokens in circulation."[12] In October same year, Verve launched its entry into the East African payment market with strategic partnership with Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) "to expand Verve Card acceptance and payment services in six key East African markets", namely: Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, South Sudan, Rwanda and Uganda.[13][14][15]

See also

References

  1. ^ Oluwaseun Oyeniyi (22 January 2014). "VERVE, MICROSOFT, LUMIA PARTNER ON MOBILE PAYMENT COMPETITION". Ventures Africa.
  2. ^ Bankole Orija (11 June 2013). "Interswitch Restructures, Creates 2 Divisions for Regional & Intl. Growth". Nigeria Communications Week.
  3. ^ Victoria Conroy (12 December 2009). "Nigeria Drives African Card Growth". Cards International.
  4. ^ Sola Fanawopo (10 April 2013). "Verve: The Making of a Glocal Payment Card". Value-Conflict.
  5. ^ "Verve, Zap, OthersTop 10 African Fin. Service Tech Products in 2009". 18 January 2010.
  6. ^ "Business spin offs to further African expansion plans – Interswitch says". Technology Times. 17 June 2013.
  7. ^ "Discover Financial Services Announces International Alliance With Nigeria's Interswitch Limited". The Street. 12 March 2013.
  8. ^ "Discover Financial Services partners Nigeria's Interswitch Limited". BusinessDay. 14 March 2013.
  9. ^ Benson Esomojumi (14 March 2013). "Interswitch, Discover Ink Financial Services Agreement". Nigeria Communications Week.
  10. ^ Etinosa Osayimwen (18 March 2013). "Interswitch Verve Cards now accepted in US, other countries". The Herald.
  11. ^ "Discover Financial Services Announces International Alliance With Nigeria'S Interswitch Limited". Discover (Press Release). 12 March 2013.
  12. ^ Funsho Arogundade (6 December 2015). "Verve launches 'Verve World', a revolutionary mobile app, in Nigeria". The News.
  13. ^ Ibukun Taiwo (30 October 2015). "Nigerian Payment Card, Verve, Launches Officially In East Africa". Tech Cabal.
  14. ^ "Nigeria Payment Card Verve Launches in East Africa". Brand Essence. 30 October 2015.
  15. ^ Lilian Ochieng' (29 October 2015). "Nigeria's Verve enters Kenya to compete with Visa, MasterCard". Nation.
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