3V expands to North America

ONLINE PAYMENT company 3V Transaction Services has signed new deals that pave the way for the firm to bring its pay-as-you-go 3V Visa vouchers to the Canadian market.

The agreements with financial institution Peoples Trust Company and Vendtek Systems were signed as part of an Enterprise Ireland trade mission to Canada led by Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise Mary Coughlan. Under the deal, Peoples Trust Company will become 3V’s issuer in the region, while Vendtek Systems will act as distribution partners.

The Visa vouchers are expected to yield up to $100 million (€64 million) in spend values a year in the market once the product launches early next year.

“Local knowledge is paramount, and we don’t know the Canadian market. What we determined within our strategy is that we would use local players to deliver the 3V product suite into that market and they would have the prerequisite skillset to do that,” said 3V Transaction Services chief executive Kieron Guilfoyle.

“For us as a business, it’s quite a big milestone because it’s one of the first times you’ve seen an online payment instrument export across to North America.”

He said the company was not planning to launch in the US in the immediate future, but the Canadian market would be a good testing ground. “Canada is a useful market for us because it’s a great benchmark for any market entry into the US,” he said.

“It’s quite a good global test for us. We’d like to see how the Canadian business performs first, because the difference between Canada and the US is that our Canadian network has 15,000 points of sale. The average network you’d be looking at in the US would have 160,000.”

Despite the Canadian deal, Mr Guilfoyle said the company was focusing on expanding in the European market in the coming months.

3V Transaction Services recently signed a deal covering the Benelux region, with Banque Invik and Moreless on board for the region. Next on the list is the Netherlands, which will launch in early 2010. “Our primary focus is on the European market,” said Mr Guilfoyle.

Established in 2005, the service has more than 400,000 customers in Ireland and Britain, where it entered the market in 2006.