- Acquires 46% stake with a clear intent to expand its market presence in Africa

    FSS (Financial Software and Systems), a global payments technology company, 
has announced a strategic investment in Ecentric Payment Systems, a Standard 
Bank subsidiary and a leading payment processor in South Africa. FSS has 
acquired a 46% stake in Ecentric through a combination of primary and secondary 
investments, with a potential to further
its stake holding.


    (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/682112/FSS_Logo.jpg )


    FSS is a global leader in delivering integrated payment solutions with a 
portfolio of 130 customers globally and with two decades of experience in the 
payment's domain. The company's product portfolio spans the complete payments 
spectrum including Issuance, Acquiring, Smart Reconciliation, Digital Banking, 
Digital Security, Payment Processing and Switching and Payment Analytics.

    Headquartered in South Africa, Ecentric, a Standard Bank subsidiary, is a 
leading payment switching and retail value added services provider. With a 
customer portfolio comprising 50+ Tier-1 banks and retailers, Ecentric has a 
strong presence in domestic and other African markets for its payment 
acceptance solutions. Ecentric processes transactions for a majority of Tier-1 
retailers and, small and specialized retail outlets. The product and service 
offerings include Card Processing, Value Added Services, Remittances, Issuing, 
Cash Management and Reconciliation.

    FSS' deep payments technology expertise and knowledge of working in 
emerging markets across the globe, combined with Ecentric's established market 
presence creates a formidable proposition for the African payments market.

    The World Bank forecasts Africa would record an average four per cent 
year-on-year GDP growth, higher than other emerging and developing countries. 
In the last decade, the continent has leapfrogged legacy banking models to take 
advantage of advances in digital technology and favourable regulation to 
improve efficiency, convenience and accessibility of payment systems.  

    The investment is in line with FSS growth plans to work with like-minded 
businesses to grow in target markets and to meet its strategy of being an 
integrated global payment processor and payment technology provider. With the 
investment, FSS gains immediate access to a ready customer base and can further 
tap into the fast-growing market for merchant processing and payment solutions 
in Africa.  

    The Ecentric investment will also provide FSS an ideal platform to build a 
Fintech hub focused on the development of payment solutions tailored to the 
unique requirements of the African region. Ecentric will leverage FSS' proven 
payments technology expertise and funnel the investment to fuel its next phase 
of market growth. As part of the agreement, Ecentric will deploy FSS 
PoSabIlity, a market-proven integrated POS driving and in-store payment 
acceptance solution.

    Commenting on the announcement, Nagaraj Mylandla, Managing Director, FSS 
stated, "We are pleased to join Ecentric as an institutional investor in the 
company. We see the investment as an extraordinary opportunity to achieve a 
leadership position in the African payments space. The partnership will help us 
leverage mutual synergies to strengthen our presence in Africa's largest 
markets and drive increased growth for FSS payment acquiring and other 
solutions."  

    Speaking on the transaction, Larry McCarthy, Head Strategic Investments and 
Alliances, Standard Bank Group, said; "The introduction of FSS as a Strategic 
Equity Partner into Ecentric will further cement Ecentric's position as a 
leading provider of value-added payment services to its clients and accelerate 
its growth into new products, across new markets in Africa as well as 
furthering commercial ties between Africa and India."

    Speaking on the association, Hassen Sheik, CEO of Ecentric, said; "We are 
very excited to welcome our strategic partner, FSS, a global payments leader, 
as a new investor. The financial and strategic backing from FSS, will help 
Ecentric accelerate product innovation and grow the business in its home market 
as well as expand to more countries. This backing brings us a step closer to 
achieving our goal of creating a ubiquitous and universal digital payment 
acceptance market in the continent."

    

    Contact FSS  
    Rishi Pillay 
    Regional General Manager - Africa 
    +27-87-809-4331 
    Rishipillay@fsstech.com 

    Contact Ecentric 
    Hassen Sheik 
    CEO 
    +27-21-681 9600 
    hsheik@ecentric.co.za  

    Source: Financial Software and Systems (FSS)