Discover Financial Services is making its network more useful for consumers in other countries by teaming up with the Serbian national payments network DinaCard.
The partnership enables DinaCard cardholders to use the Discover, Diners Club International and Pulse networks to make purchases and cash withdrawals at automated teller machines outside of Serbia.
Founded in 2003, DinaCard is Serbia's national card network. It is operated by the National Payment Card Center, a division of the National Bank of Serbia. DinaCard is the largest card network in Serbia with 27 local issuing banks and 2.5 million cards. The Discover deal was announced Thursday.
Serbian issuers plan to replace existing DinaCard cards with ones that include the Discover, Diners Club and Pulse brand marks as they come up for renewal.
The partnership between Discover and DinaCard is another step in Discover's goal to increase its services worldwide.
Discover began expanding its card acceptance at ATMs and merchant locations in India, Europe and Canada last year, and forged agreements with China UnionPay in 2005 and with JCB Co. Ltd. of Japan in 2006.
Discover earlier this year signed a deal with Global Payments Inc. that expanded Diners Club card acceptance in Europe and Asia.
During the past few years, "Discover has been committed to expanding outside of the U.S.," said Gwenn Bezard, a research director with the Boston consulting company Aite Group.
"Discover, Diners Club International and Pulse will see increased volume on their global networks," Rajive Chada, Diners Club's president, said in a press release.
