SpareBank 1 Alliance and FöreningsSparbanken sign new cooperation agreement

The new Nordic cooperation agreement will entail closer commercial cooperation in several areas. In particular, cooperation with respect to card and payment services will be expanded. FöreningsSparbanken purchasing the SpareBank 1 Group's 65% interest in EnterCard AS will effect this. The purchase price is NOK 136.5 million, which values the entire company at NOK 210 million. SpareBank 1 Gruppen AS will post a gain of NOK 65 million on this sale. The background for this acquisition is the fact that the parties envision major synergy and cooperation opportunities for card and payment services in the Nordic market.

 

EnterCard AS was established in May 2000 after the merger of Sparebankkort AS and SpareBank 1 Kredittkort AS. The SpareBank 1 Group owns 65% and the Terra Group owns 35% of the company, which has around 60 employees divided between offices in Oslo and Trondheim.

 

EnterCard issues and is responsible for credit and management of credit and debit cards for around 110 Norwegian banks. The company has close to 20 different credit and payment cards with varying functionality and content. In addition, the company has co-branding agreements with partners such as Coop, the Norwegian Federation of Trade Unions and the Association of Norwegian Students Abroad.

 

Additional areas of cooperation within the framework of the new cooperation agreement will be considered in the future. There is a common ambition to expand the commercial cooperation further. IT, customer related services and basic banking services are relevant areas for such expansion.

 

FöreningsSparbanken and SpareBank 1 have already established cooperation within a number of important product areas in the Nordic market. The SpareBank 1 Group's wholly owned fund manager ODIN sells a number of the FöreningsSparbanken's Robur funds, while FöreningsSparbanken and SpareBank 1 each own 33% of First Securities ASA.