LEAWOOD, Kan., Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ: EEFT), a leading global financial technology solutions and payments provider, announced today the launch of Dandelion – a first-of-a-kind cross-border payments platform that modernizes the way fintechs, banks, ERPs and tech platforms can integrate business and consumer cross-border payments into their products.

Today, consumers and businesses send more than $155 Trillion* in cross-border payments annually – with costs exceeding $200 Billion**. This market has seen a tremendous change in customer expectations – driven by global adoption of digital payments, regulatory reform, a global labor market that is transforming with temporary and gig workers, and rapid expansion into emerging markets. These shifts are also leaving consumers and small businesses underbanked and unprepared to keep up with global economic dynamics. This enormous and changing market has been overlooked – still relying on fragmented legacy systems that are slow, clunky and lack transparency and accessibility.

For most businesses, making an international payment is a difficult process. That’s because the current infrastructure is driven by a series of complex processes with no end-to-end solution. International payments touch an average of five banks, collecting unexpected fees and delays along the way and often requiring manual processes like emails, paper trails, invoices and phone calls. All of this adds cost and inefficiency. Cryptocurrencies have tried to fill this gap and moved financial systems forward, but there is real concern that crypto moves the global financial system backwards on tracking and reporting of monies, security, transparency and financial stability.

“No one has really focused on effectively connecting all sides of the transaction – the entire end-to-end experience – with a real-time solution. That leaves a huge gap in the payments space,” said Michael J. Brown, Chairman and CEO of Euronet. “Most of the new entrants in the payments market focus on the interface and onboarding of end users. And they do a good job of it. But we set out to reimagine cross-border payments from end-to-end. That is where Dandelion fills the void in the cross-border payments world. Dandelion is the platform that financial players have needed to enable rapid global expansion and efficiently process cross-border transactions.”

Dandelion delivers real-time, global connectivity to enable access to new markets as a turnkey solution, eliminating the need for a massive investment of resources and accelerating the time to revenue for the customers of financial platforms. Now, Dandelion offers businesses a platform that helps them better serve their customers with:

• Global Reach: Dandelion provides direct connections to local payment rails across 162 countries - even difficult-to-reach emerging markets - including:
  • Four billion bank and mobile wallet accounts
  • Cash delivery to more than 507,000 locations
  • Business payments expected to reach over 100 countries by Q1 of 2022
• Real-Time Payments: With its unparalleled global infrastructure, Dandelion has direct, end-to-end connections. Good funds are delivered in minutes (or even seconds) to business or consumer accounts.
• A Single, Easy-to-Use Technology Integration: Dandelion offers a single, customizable API for easy integration. The developer portal enables state-of-the-art monitoring and real-time support before and after go-live, making it easy for companies to deploy natively from their platform, for a seamless customer experience. In addition, while the API is fully compliant with ISO 20022 – the global open standard for payments messaging – the framework’s flexibility also enables fast and easy integration into other global systems that adhere to different standards.
• Unparalleled Transparency: Unlike other payment options, Dandelion follows the live status of the payment, for customers who want full visibility into the status of their payments. Dandelion eliminates hidden transfer fees, improves exchange rates and drives down cost per transaction.
• Integrated Compliance Capabilities: Dandelion leverages Euronet’s world-class compliance experience and localized expertise around the globe.
• Built-in settlement: Dandelion also enables instant settlement of cross-border payments, removing the need to establish thousands of relationships with correspondent banks and partners.
  

“We’ve taken our leading C2C money transfer network and enhanced it,” said Brown. “But this isn’t just about great new technology – it’s about the whole package. It took us decades to build the regulatory framework, licenses, global connections, banking relationships and local infrastructure with skilled teams, which, through great technology, can now be consumed as a service – and we know it works, because we use it ourselves.”

Dandelion is unlike any other payments platform. That’s because it offers the broadest access to global markets and the flexibility to plug into wallets and alternative payment platforms. And, it has the largest real-time bank network. By Q1, 2022 Dandelion expects to have the ability to deliver real-time payments to countries representing more than 80 percent of the global GDP. Combined with this reach, Dandelion uniquely integrates value-added capabilities including compliance and foreign exchange management.

Dandelion is available now to a wide range of businesses looking to instantly expand their global payments footprint or improve the efficiency of their international payments. Current Dandelion customers using the platform include Azimo, Bnext, Libro, Microsoft Dynamics, Nickel (an internet bank), Remitly, Sage Intacct, Xoom/Paypal and more. For more information about Dandelion or to inquire about service, please visit www.dandelionpayments.com.

Live Product Announcement:
Euronet Worldwide will hold a webcast presentation to provide more information on Dandelion today at 9:00 am Eastern Time. The presentation will be available at this link Dandelion Product Announcement as well as on the Euronet Worldwide Investor Relations page at http://ir.euronetworldwide.com. Participants should go to the website at least five minutes prior to the scheduled start time of the event to register. A slideshow will be included in the webcast. 

Following remarks from Mike Brown, Euronet’s Chairman and CEO, analysts, investors, and media are invited to participate in a question-and-answer session. The Q&A session can be accessed by dialing (833) 989-2970 (USA) or (873) 415-0301 (International). Users will be asked to mute their computer speakers prior to asking their question. 

About Euronet Worldwide, Inc.
Euronet Worldwide is a leading global financial technology solutions and payments provider. The Company offers payment and transaction processing solutions to financial institutions, retailers, service providers and individual consumers. These services include comprehensive ATM, POS and card outsourcing services, card issuing and merchant acquiring services, software solutions, cash-based and online-initiated consumer-to-consumer and business-to-business money transfer services, and electronic distribution of digital media and prepaid mobile phone time.

Euronet's global payment network is extensive - including 47,474 owned and operated ATMs, approximately 400,000 EFT POS terminals and a growing portfolio of outsourced debit and credit card services which are under management in 62 countries; card software solutions; a prepaid processing network of approximately 739,000 POS terminals at approximately 325,000 retailer locations in 62 countries; and a global money transfer network of approximately 507,000 locations serving 162 countries. With corporate headquarters in Leawood, Kansas, USA, and 66 worldwide offices, Euronet serves clients in approximately 175 countries. For more information, please visit the Company's website at www.euronetworldwide.com.

Media Contact
Mia Desimone
Praytell Agency for Euronet
dandelion@praytellagency.com

*Source: “How new entrants are redefining cross-border payments” Florian Seth, EY-Parthenon GmbH, Feb 23, 2021  

**Source: McKinsey Global Payments Study, 2020

Statements contained in this news release that concern Euronet's or its management's intentions, expectations, or predictions of future performance, are forward-looking statements. Euronet's actual results may vary materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including: conditions in world financial markets and general economic conditions, including impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic; the effects in Europe of the U.K.'s departure from the E.U. and economic conditions in specific countries and regions; technological developments affecting the market for our products and services; our ability to successfully introduce new products and services; foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; the effects of any breach of our computer systems or those of our customers or vendors, including our financial processing networks or those of other third parties; interruptions in any of our systems or those of our vendors or other third parties; our ability to renew existing contracts at profitable rates; changes in fees payable for transactions performed for cards bearing international logos or over switching networks such as card transactions on ATMs; our ability to comply with increasingly stringent regulatory requirements, including anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism, anti-bribery, consumer and data protection and the European Union's General Data Privacy Regulation and Second Payment Service Directive requirements; changes in laws and regulations affecting our business, including tax and immigration laws and any laws regulating payments, including dynamic currency conversion transactions; changes in our relationships with, or in fees charged by, our business partners; competition; the outcome of claims and other loss contingencies affecting Euronet; the cost of borrowing, availability of credit and terms of and compliance with debt covenants; and renewal of sources of funding as they expire and the availability of replacement funding. These risks and other risks are described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. Copies of these filings may be obtained via the SEC's Edgar website or by contacting the Company. Any forward-looking statements made in this release speak only as of the date of this release. Except as may be required by law, Euronet does not intend to update these forward-looking statements and undertakes no duty to any person to provide any such update under any circumstances. The Company regularly posts important information to the investor relations section of its website.

Source: Euronet Worldwide, Inc.