Belize Bank and American Express Enter Into Agreement to Process Transactions Locally
The Belize Bank Limited has signed an agreement with American Express to process American Express transactions within its merchant network. This process became effective on January thirteenth. The Belize Bank’s statistics show that a majority of American Express cardholders use used their cards at the point-of-sale terminals at hotels, restaurants and tour companies. Belize Bank will be able to develop secure and efficient payment solutions to help merchants adapt to their customer’s needs and payment methods. On Wednesday evening in San Pedro, an event was held at the Alaia Resort to formally introduce the renewed partnership. Here is that story.
Filippo Alario
Filippo Alario, C.E.O., Belize Bank Ltd.
“I’m delighted to welcome you to the launch of the AmEx event in Belize. We could not have asked for a better setting in this beautiful Alaia Resort, one of the nicest properties in Belize. I would like to extend a special welcome to our American Express representatives here, led by Rene Centeno, Head of Global Commercial and B2B Products who have come in support of this initiative. You know, oftentimes Belize gets overlooked or neglected, if you want to say, by global players, for the simple reason that our size in critical mass sometimes does not make an impact in financial performance of these massive mammoths of companies. That‘s why we appreciate you coming here today, doing the morning show circuit which is not easy in Belize and meeting with our staff and meeting with our valued clients.”
Rene Centeno
Rene Centeno, Head-Global Commercial Products, American Express
“We are celebrating the fact that Belize Bank is now our first direct acquired in the market and this is quite important for us because we are transforming our acquiring business and as Filippo just mentioned, we have a great history working together as partners, as a strategic alliance and this is quite important for us because American Express is putting a lot of effort relating to the coverage, to the merchant acceptance and the idea is to be accepted in every single merchant, not important the size, not important the industry and we are going to work together to get that particular coverage in the next few months or years. So the idea, just to give you a little background, this is quite important for us because in the past, just as context, Belize Bank was the first bank in Belize to process American Express transactions under a different model, under a third party model with another partner institution and now with this certification that we just finished a couple of days before the idea is to manage, as I mentioned, a direct acquiring business.”
Agata Ruta
Agata Ruta, C.O.O., Belize Bank Ltd.
“We at the Belize Bank, we are always committed to bringing the modern financial services in Belize and this is what we decided to do with American Express as well. We worked very hard to bring the new model to Belize, direct integration with AmEx which will bring a lot of benefits and I would like to state the three pillars that are most important with this integration. The first one is cost. I think this is the most exciting one for the merchants. As Rene mentioned, we switched from the third party integration to the direct integration, meaning we basically eliminated the intermediate party in between and therefore we are able to lower the processing cost which will have the direct impact on your bottom line. So I think this one is very exciting for all of you who are gathered today, here.”
Isani Cayetano for News Five.
