According to Banking Technology when asked about this possible merger between MasterCard and Stet, both companies “do not comment on rumours or speculation” and Stet said it “has no discussions of this type with MasterCard.”
Stet is currently owned by five French banks and was set up in 2004. The processor says its “services portfolio aims to provide payment services providers (PSPs) across SEPA an integrated solution for clearing and settlement for all payment instruments through a single access”.
A consortium of Belgian banks contracted Stet in 2012 to provide processing, clearing and settlement of payment instruments, both SEPA and non-SEPA, for the 16 bank participants and the two card processors. Stet agreed and now this consortium is one of the company’s largest client, outside France.
In 2013, Stet came close to signing a deal with Eesti Pank, Estonia’s central bank, to introduce a new SEPA-compliant, interbank retail payments system. However, the reluctance from banks in the country to join put paid to this venture.
At the moment, the company is processing over 15 billion transactions per year for French and Belgian banks, underpinned by Stet’s Java and Unix-based platform, Core.
In 2015/16, the vendor developed a new instant payment platform for PSPs in Europe and a new clearing and settlement mechanism (CSM) for SEPA. The new infrastructure was named SEPA.eu and will operate a multi-cycle, delivery-after settlement model.
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