The Client
Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) is the largest commercial and retail bank in Romania. BCR has more than 3 million accounts, a network of 550 ATMs and 1,600 POS terminals. The Romanian Commercial Banks holds over 30% of the national credits and deposits market.

The Challenge
BCR sought to leverage its existing ATM population and related existing infrastructure to generate additional revenue by providing value-added services. The bank wanted to provide the value-added service with little or no new investment on the part of the bank.

The Solution
BCR already had Euronet software products installed at the bank to internally manage functions such as ATM, POS and debit and credit card systems. In June 2001, Euronet's mobile banking software was installed as the first value-added service (VAS) of the Euronet portfolio; a connection was established with MobiFon (brand name: Connex), the largest Romanian mobile operator to provide BCR cardholders with short-messaging services (SMS) access to BCR mobile banking functions using MobiFon (Connex) handsets.

Based on the success of the first VAS, BCR determined that the next service to add would be ATM recharge. With the recent explosion of mobile phone users during the last few years in Romania, 60% of all the mobile customers were using the prepaid system at the end of 2002, this represents well over 2.7 million prepaid mobile phone customers.

To implement an inexpensive solution in a short of period of time, BCR opted for Euronet's outsourcing solution for ATM recharge. At the time, Euronet had already proved its expertise with ATM recharge outsourcing systems through 12 live solutions installed and operations connecting to more than 4,150 ATMs across Europe.

The Results
Euronet's state of the art host-to-host interface enabled BCR to support an enhanced ATM transaction set, including but not limited to mini-statement, fast cash, bill payment and GSM recharge. BCR already had a live connection to Connex and the ATM recharge solution was a typical example of employing that existing infrastructure to generate incremental revenues through value added transactions.

Due to the standard, proven architecture of the host-to-host interface, Euronet was able to deploy the solution in a highly expedient manner and with a minimal impact on the Bank's day-to-day operations.

Customers of Connex's prepaid service are the first users in Romania to have an electronic method for adding airtime minutes to their mobile phone accounts. Euronet ATM recharge enables Connex to distribute airtime 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at any one of 483 BCR-branded ATMs across Romania.

Based on the past 4 years of close cooperation, which included the implementation of a series of innovative Euronet EFT software solutions, BCR recognize a high level of satisfaction with respect to Euronet's software products and professional services:

"Euronet is BCR's only vendor for all of our card and electronic transaction related applications. We regard them as partner and trusted advisors and I am convinced that they have the expertise and resources to deliver more products in a timely and professional manner" said Mr. Ion Matei, BCR's Card Director (September 12, 2001)

Recharging prepaid mobile airtime at the ATM generates an additional source of revenue for BCR. Euronet shares with BCR the per transactions revenues earned through distribution of Connex GSM vouchers at BCR ATMs.

"We value Euronet as a strategic partner whose quick-to-market solution will enable us to generate more high-margin transactions," said Mr. Ion Matei, BCR's Card Director (May 30, 2002).