EVO Payments to Provide Merchant Acquiring, Payment Processing for National Bank of Greece

EVO Payments, which works with payment tech integrations and acquiring, has rolled out a new partnership with the National Bank of Greece to offer merchant acquiring and payment services, according to a Thursday (Dec. 16) press release.

The agreement will see the companies making a joint venture, with the bank spinning off its merchant acquiring business into something new, in which EVO will buy a 51% interest.

The transaction will also see NBG referring customers to the joint venture. EVO will manage the venture and provide card acceptance solutions.

NBG, founded in 1841, is the country’s biggest bank and supports over 5 million customers and almost 360 retail branches in Greece. NBG is also the biggest card issuer there. Greece has around 11 million people today, and card penetration is at 28%. The release says domestic pay volumes have been inching up since 2016, now totaling over $40 billion.

With the partnership, EVO’s presence in Europe will see an expansion, and it will be able to capitalize on the new digital trends of the pandemic.

EVO CEO James G. Kelly said the company will be glad to expand its long-term marketing alliance. He said NBG will help “bring our proprietary solutions to the market and increase card acceptance.”

“The Bank’s market-leading brand recognition and significant customer base will enable us to grow the merchant portfolio as we work together to deliver strong revenue growth,” he said, per the release.

The transaction is likely to close in 2022, the release says.

Greece and other hotspots like Spain have announced that they wouldn’t be closing their doors to American tourists as of the summertime COVID-19 surge.

More here: European Vacation Spots Remain Open to Americans Despite EU Recommendation

In many cases, European nations have let Americans enter if they can prove vaccination or recovery from the virus, or a recent negative test. Europe had put the choices of how to act on the shoulders of every individual country.

This led to several countries trying to make up for a year with no American tourists, so they ended up putting tourism concerns over pandemic safety going into the fall.