Santander Brasil (NYSE: BSBR) has launched its Brazilian card acquirer Santander Conta Integrada with IT firm Getnet, the bank announced on Thursday (Mar 18).

Santander Conta Integrada already has an acquiring deal with MasterCard (NYSE: MA) and will eventually allow transactions with Visa (NYSE: V) and other regional card brands, according to a securities filing from the bank.

The company, which will officially be known as Santander Getnet Serviзos, will be a 50-50 JV between Santander Brasil and Getnet and should get its Visa agreement in July, executives told a conference call. They also said that Santander will not be making additional investments in the firm, as this would be Getnet’s responsibility.

GOALS, STRATEGY

Santander Brasil, which is controlled by Spain’s Santander (NYSE: STD), plans to take advantage of its role as both a card issuer and acquirer by generating 150,000 new accounts with the bank via its acquiring business, 300,000 new retailer clients for the acquirer and a 10% market share in the card market transaction volume by 2012, the bank said in a presentation.

Executives were careful to play down competition with other card acquirers, saying Santander’s retail focus for the next three years would be SME banking clients. The acquirer market is currently dominated by Cielo, in which Bradesco (NYSE: BBD) and federally controlled Banco do Brasil (BB) own a majority stake, and Redecard, which is controlled by Itaъ Unibanco (NYSE: ITUB).

“Our competitors are banks – not Cielo and Redecard,” product and card director Cassius Schymura said during the call, explaining that Santander will continue to distribute products via these two companies.

Santander hopes to gain 5bn reais (US$2.80bn) in new SME loans by 2012 through the acquirer and will make its discounts on banking services, rather than lowering acquirer fees. The bank’s executives said that three years of surveys for the project had indicated that clients don’t demand lower prices, as much as they want a more supportive banking partner, and that gains on the acquirer side would more than make up for lost revenue on the banking side.

Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) analyst Mario Pierry said in a research note that the Santander announcement was much more “benign” than some had worried and that it was keeping its buy rating on Cielo and Redecard.

BACKGROUND ON GETNET, SANTANDER’S OTHER BUSINESSES

Getnet has a client base of 160,000 retailers and has worked with Banco BNG, Serasa Experian, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Brasil Telecom, Claro, TIM, Vivo, Telefуnica, Oн, Embratel, CTBC, Amazonia Celular and Banco Matone among others.

Santander pointed to successful experience in working through its banking presence with acquirer partnerships in Argentina, the US, the UK and Europe.

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