International Money Transfer Joint Venture, HomeSend, Announces CEO and Board

PARIS, April 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

MasterCard, eServGlobal and BICS announce closing of the HomeSend joint venture and the appointment of the CEO and Board of Directors 

MasterCard (NYSE: MA), eServGlobal (LSE: ESG.L, ASX: ESV.AX) and BICS today announced the successful closing of the previously announced joint venture, HomeSend.

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HomeSend, an international money transfer hub, will provide an important link between developed and financially underserved emerging markets, particularly for foreign workers in need of an instantaneous and cost-effective solution for funds transfer. The World Bank estimates that the world's 232 million international migrants are expect to remit over US$700 billion annually by 2016.

The company will be led by MasterCard payment solutions expert, Stephen Doyle. Prior to this role, Stephen served as a Vice President within the Emerging Payments group at MasterCard.  In this role, he was responsible for the European go-to-market strategy, planning and deployment of products powered by the MasterCard inControl service, including applications across the company's Commercial, Consumer, Debit and Credit businesses. Previously he was Chief Financial Officer for Orbiscom, a payments technology company acquired by MasterCard in 2008.

Stephen Doyle, CEO of HomeSend, said, "I am honored to assume the role of CEO at this exciting time for HomeSend.  The joint venture offers a perfect vehicle to expand the reach and range of HomeSend's money transfer services globally.  The HomeSend joint venture can increase people's freedom to send and receive money in a way that's easy and convenient and will bring our customers a level of interoperability and connectivity that's unique in the remittance industry."

HomeSend's operations will be overseen by a Board comprised of six members, bringing extensive experience from across the telco, payments and financial domains.

• Max Chion, Group Executive, Emerging Payments Products, MasterCard
• Bella Stavchansky, Division President, High Growth European Markets Region, MasterCard
• Max Mamondez, Regional Finance Officer, Europe, MasterCard
• Paolo Montessori, CEO and Managing Director, eServGlobal
• Stephen Blundell, CFO and Finance Director, eServGlobal
• Frédéric Salmon, Vice-President, Strategic Projects, BICS

HomeSend, which was first launched in 2008 as a strategic partnership by JV members BICS and eServGlobal, has live deployments in 50 countries and commercial contracts with mobile network operators (MNOs) and money transfer operators (MTOs) that represent more than 1.2 billion subscribers - the equivalent of one in seven of the world's population - and 200,000 cash agents respectively. This community will be connected to the more than 24,000 financial institutions on the MasterCard network, creating one of the most extensive cross-border money transfer networks in the world and providing new levels of flexibility and choice to consumers in both developed and emerging markets.

Following today's announcement, HomeSend is now operating as an independent entity, with the full support of the three partners.  

SOURCE eServGlobal