Discover Grows Its International Presence Through a Pair-Up With Telered in Panama

Discover Global Network continues to expand its international business through a deal with Panamanian payment processor Telered S.A.

Telered manages the Sistema Clave, or Clave System, which Discover says is the largest interbank network of ATMs and points of sale in Panama. In business for more than 30 years, Clave’s network includes 2.4 million debit cards issued, more than 2,000 ATMs, and 32 affiliated financial Institutions, according to Discover.

What Discover calls a “strategic alliance” will enable holders of Discover credit cards and holders of its other card brands to use their cards in Panama, a financial-services hub in Central America. On the other side, Panamanian cardholders will get expanded acceptance options.

“For merchants in Panama, the agreement represents the opening of a new universe of opportunities by allowing transactions from more than 345 million cardholders from Discover Network, Diners Club, Pulse, and more than 25 strategic alliances from around the world, expanding their potential market,” Discover said in a Friday news release. “Additionally, the alliance with Discover will provide issuing and acquiring financial institutions with a more robust infrastructure, new security capabilities, will allow the issuance of cards with an international profile, and access to new global alliances.”

Also through the agreement “Sistema Clave users will be able to make purchases and payments at more than 70 million global acceptance locations, as well as on frequently used online merchants and streaming platforms; and withdraw cash at more than 1.8 million ATMs worldwide across Discover’s network,” Riverwoods, Ill.-based Discover said. “Additionally, Discover Global Network cardholders will be able to transact at Telered merchants in Panama.”

Telered’s number of merchant locations and payment volumes were not immediately available.

The agreement’s technological aspects will be implemented in three stages over the course of a year called Project Clave 2.0, one of which includes issuance of the new Clave Global Card. It comes ahead of Discover’s planned merger with Capital One Financial Corp. That $35.3 billion deal is under regulatory review.