History

Redecard history dates back to 1970, when Citibank, who is among the largest financial institutions and credit card issuers worldwide, along with Itaucard and Unibanco, who are among the largest financial institutions and credit card issuers in Brazil, gathered to found Credicard. Credicard´s activities included those of a credit card brand, an issuer and a merchant acquirer and payment processor.

By 1980, Credicard had issued 500,000 cards and affiliated 120,000 merchants. In 1987, Credicard began issuing MasterCard branded cards and, by 1994, it had issued 5 million cards. During that same year, Credicard launched the first debit card in the Brazilian market, Redeshop, which allowed merchants to receive payment for their sales on the first business day after the transaction, following the charge to the cardholder´s account by the issuer.

In 1996, Citibank, Itaucard and Unibanco believed it was necessary to have a company specialized in merchant acquiring and payment processing and founded Redecard by spinning off Credicard´s merchant acquiring and payment processing activities. In that same year, MasterCard International also became a shareholder of Redecard. Since then, Redecard has been the main merchant acquirer and payment processor for MasterCard and Diners Club International branded credit and debit cards in Brazil.

Since its formation, Redecard was the leader of the Redecard Consortium. The corporate purposes of the Redecard Consortium, which was incorporated according to Brazilian Corporate Law, were the same as the ones Redecard currently pursues: affiliating merchants to accept credit and debit cards, and capturing, transmitting, processing and settling transactions carried out with MasterCard and Diners Club International credit and debit cards in Brazil. The members of the Redecard Consortium included the controlling shareholders and Redecard itself. The assets held by Redecard Consortium were fully transferred to Redecard.

As the leader of the Redecard Consortium, Redecard performed and carried out all the activities necessary for the development of the Redecard Consortium. The results of Redecard Consortium were distributed according to the share of each consortium member in its revenues and certain revenues and expenses were shared by the consortium members in the same proportion as their respective shareholdings in Redecard, in accordance with criteria defined in the consortium formation contract.

The Redecard Consortium ceased to exist on March 31, 2007, and after its termination, Redecard assumed all Redecard Consortium’s rights and obligations.

Corporate Profile

Redecard is one of the leading companies in the merchant acquiring and payment processing industry in Brazil, and currently is the main acquirer of MasterCard and Diners Club International cards in Brazil. Redecard is responsible for acquiring merchants to accept credit and debit cards as a means of payment, as well as for the capturing, transmission, processing and settlement of credit and debit card transactions.

Fitch Ratings has assigned a ‘BBB‘ foreign and local currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) and a National Scale rating of ‘AAA(bra)‘ to Redecard. The Rating Outlook for the corporate ratings is Stable.

In 2007, the Company had a 32,9% market share based on the value of transactions with credit and debit cards in Brazil, which reached a total of R$310.8 billion. According to data from the Brazilian Association of Credit Card and Service Companies (ABECS), this market represented 19.4% of the total private consumption in Brazil during the same year.

Besides the activities of merchant acquiring, capturing, transmission, processing and settlement of credit and debit card transactions, Redecard also offers additional products and services to its merchants and other customers, which include rental of point of sale (POS) electronic equipment, prepayment to merchants of receivables from credit card sales, check verification services (credit analysis of consumers) through the POS electronic equipment and capture and transmission services for transactions carried out with voucher and private-label cards.

Last Update: February 01, 2010