JCB International, a unit of Japanese card issuer JCB, has entered into a strategic partnership with French banking group Arkea on merchant acceptance and ATM access.

The agreement will allow merchants that use Arkea’s payment terminals and payment gateway to accept JCB card payments.

Both physical and online merchant network of Arkea will support JCB card payments.

Furthermore, JCB cardholders will also be able to withdraw cash from all Arkea ATMs. This includes all Arkea group ATMs, including those located in shopping malls and railway stations.

The French banking group intends to gradually launch access to JCB cards on all of its payment terminals portfolio.

JCB partners Arkea

Arkea also plans to roll out access to its online payment pages from its wider networks of partners. These include Credit Mutuel de Bretagne, Credit Mutuel du Sud Ouest, Credit Mutuel Massif Central and Arkea Banque Entreprises et Institutionnels.

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The banking group’s business customers will be able to accept JCB card by the end of this month. In addition, this will come no additional costs.

Arkea deputy general manager and in charge of the Innovation and Operations Cluster Frederic Laurent said: “JCB is a leader in its market and offers high quality services to more than 130 million JCB cardmembers. Arkea’s ambition is to support its clients, regardless of their typology, in the development of their projects. Enabling merchants to expand their customer base to JCB cardmembers is a truly international opportunity.”

JCB International (Europe) managing director Tsuyoshi Notani said: “This partnership with Arkea comes at a key juncture in JCB’s European strategy, which aims to strengthen its acceptance as close to consumers as possible.

“JCB cardmembers coming to France will benefit from convenient access to luxury, retail, hospitality, catering, gastronomy and cash withdrawals from ATMs. Arkea is present at major tourist destinations such as Brittany and New Aquitaine.”

JCB has over 130 million cardmembers and nearly 30 million merchants accept JCB card worldwide.

Last month, JCB International teamed up with Viva Wallet to boost coverage in Europe.

In February this year, JCB International inked a joint licencing agreement with Cyprus-based face to face acquirer JCC to extend its presence across Europe.