Net Element to Joint Venture with Bank Sputnik in Launching New Payment Processing Center

Net Element (NASDAQ:NETE) announced that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Bank Sputnik to launch a technology platform expected to provide a suite of frictionless payment acceptance services for financial institutions and value added providers.

As quoted in the press release:

Bank Sputnik provides a full range of banking services to businesses. The payment processing center would integrate Bank Sputnik’s expertise in enabling secure globally interoperable financial transactions with Net Element’s expertise in developing frictionless value-added payment acceptance services.

Russia is one of the top 10 global economies in terms of volume of cashless payments (World Payment Report 2016). This new payment processing center is expected to accelerate the delivery of payment acceptance services in this market, combining banking services and bill payments in a multi-channel environment.

Per the memorandum of understanding, it is contemplated that Net Element will execute the deployment, launch and servicing of the payment processing center in exchange for 25% of issued and outstanding shares of Bank Sputnik. The bank will provide the capacity for the data center for deployment and subsequent use of software required for the implementation of the program, as well as financial instruments for settlement of transactions and funding required for the development and implementation. This joint venture with Bank Sputnik is subject to approval of the shareholders of Bank Sputnik and the bank’s regulators, and the parties’ negotiating and entering into a binding definitive agreement.

“This exciting partnership with Bank Sputnik will enable the companies to join forces to create a multi-channel payment processing center focused on value-added services,” commented Vlad Sadovskiy, president of integrated payments for Net Element.

“Together, Bank Sputnik and Net Element will be able to provide financial institutions and value-added providers in Russia with frictionless payment acceptance services in one single resource,” commented Evgeni Rostovtsev chairman of Bank Sputnik.

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