Discover enters agreement with PayNet to expand worldwide acceptance

By Leandra Monteiro

Discover, a digital bank and payments company and PayNet, the national payments network and shared central infrastructure for payment services in Malaysia, have signed an agreement that will greatly expand acceptance for Discover, Diners Club International and network alliance cardholders in Malaysia.

The agreement is in line with the digital bank’s strategy of increasing acceptance in Asia Pacific to support existing partners in countries such as Singapore, India, China and Japan by potentially opening  at 10,000 ATM locations and more than 570,000 point-of-sale terminals throughout Malaysia.

In the past few years, Discover has seen continued acceptance growth in the Asia Pacific especially with recent partnerships in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Vietnam and New Zealand, adding to the many already established relationships. This resulted in acceptance in the region growing by 14% in 2020.

“Working with PayNet was key to opening the Malaysian market to our partners around the globe,” said Ricardo Leite, senior vice president of international markets at Discover. “Discover will continue to work with payment providers in the region in an effort to provide more seamless payment interactions for customers when travel is necessary.”

“PayNet sees many exciting opportunities for both parties with this partnership. It fits well with PayNet’s efforts to provide opportunity to our member banks to expand their reach by connecting to the Discover Global Network, and Malaysian businesses to increase sales opportunities by facilitating payments by Discover’s global cardmember base visiting Malaysia,” said Peter Schiesser, Group CEO at PayNet.

According to the digital bank, it has more than 50 million merchant acceptance locations and 2 million ATM and cash access locations around the world. The Discover Global Network includes Discover Network, Diners Club International, PULSE and more than 20 alliance partner networks across the globe.