JCB expands collaboration with Viva Wallet across Europe

By Megha Bhattacharya

JCB and Viva Wallet, today, have extended their partnership in a bid to enable contact and contactless payment between Viva Wallet’s European merchants and JCB’s 140 million cardmembers. The roll-out will be extended to an additional 6 European nations, thus allowing the FinTech to bring JCB acceptance to merchants across 23 European countries.

Mr. Makis Antypas, CIO and Co-Founder of Viva Wallet, said, “…We are very excited about our partnership with JCB, and we welcome their cardmembers, not only to make easier and faster online and offline payments, but also to accommodate the increasing demand for alternative payments methods in Europe, something not many other payment providers can support.”

According to the companies, the partnership will enable online JCB acceptance with J/Secure 1.0 (based on Visa’s 3-D Secure Core Protocol Specifications). J/Secure 1.0 is designed to be an additional security layer for cardmembers’ online credit and debit card transactions and provides cardmembers with a safe purchase experience. J/Secure 2.0 (based on the EMV 3-D Secure Protocol and Core Functions Specification) is set to follow the additional September 2020 expansion.

Mr. Thomas Heigl, Senior Vice President, Sales, and Marketing, JCB International (Europe) Ltd., said, “We’re thrilled to partner with Viva Wallet and to welcome increased, secure sales for Viva Wallet’s merchants across 17 European countries. This is a key achievement for us as we increase JCB cardmember acceptance in both brick and mortar establishments and through e-commerce transactions. The opportunity to extend into other territories from September 2020 is one we look forward to also.”

JCB Contactless offers cardmembers with a solution for making payments at grocery stores, taxis, as well as other retail purchases. Merchants will now be able to increase their brand footprint and welcome sales from 24 countries and territories where JCB cards are issued, including Japan, China, Korea, Thailand.