Discover’s Global eCommerce Acceptance Push

Where consumers go, companies that support commerce have no choice but to follow, and when those consumers choose to go global with their purchases, the decision has been made for credit card issuers.

Discover Global Network and its subsidiary Diners Club International announced Wednesday (April 20) that a deal had been reached with international eCommerce payments provider Computop to extend the reach of Discover, Diners Club and Alliance Partner credits cards wherever holders choose to use them. Ricardo Leite, vice president of Discover Global Network, explained that the partnership should be a boon to its growth in foreign markets and Europe especially.

“We’ve seen significant growth in eCommerce across the Discover Global Network and remain focused on meeting the evolving needs of our cardholders by growing digital acceptance and maintaining the highest levels of card security,” Leite said in a statement. “Computop’s international merchant base is a great fit for our cardholders, especially in Germany and throughout Europe, and further expands our global payment network.”

The announcement comes on the heels of Discover’s Q1 earnings call in which CFO Mark Graf explained that loans and credit-card lending both increased by 4 percent compared to Q1 2015 to reach respective totals of $70 billion and $56 billion. The company’s net interest margin also rose by 25 basis points to reach a new figure of 10 percent.

“It feels like a good start to the year with a strong margin and good loan growth and a continued benign credit environment,” Graf said. “We’ll continue to work diligently to manage the core expense base as we absorb increasing regulatory and compliance costs.”

If Discover and Computop can make headway with extending the international reach of its payments availability, those regulatory and compliance costs might not do much to hold the issuer back from whatever move it thinks of next.