SINGAPORE – The financial firm previously known as Diners Club Singapore may have dropped off the radar for many consumers, but its new boss has a message: “We still exist.”
Chief executive Karen Low’s undaunted tone reflects the resolve of DCS Card Centre, as the company is now known, as it embarks on ambitious rebranding efforts.
These include expanding its offerings to fintech and crypto payments as part of its moves to reach a wider range of users.
Ms Low said: “We want to announce that we still exist.With our new business, we want to showcase some of the new products and services we have.
“We’re not restarting from scratch, but adopting new revenue streams and working towards a different mission, which is to make credit more accessible to consumers and corporations via new payments products and solutions.”
Some of DCS Card Centre’s existing products include co-brand credit cards with retailers such as Sheng Siong, Don Don Donki and Popular.
Its new strategy encompasses expanding its card issuance and merchant acquiring services to include major payments networks such as Visa, Mastercard and UnionPay in addition to the Diners Club network.
It will also provide merchant acquiring services for Alipay, WeChat Pay and SGQR.
Card issuance occurs when a financial institution provides a debit/credit card to customers, while merchant acquiring involves providing payment terminals for retailers and collecting payments from card issuers like banks.
DCS Card Centre has 300,000 cardholders across all its credit cards, including the co-brand cards and new ones issued under the Mastercard and UnionPay networks.It plans to introduce Visa credit cards later in 2023.
It has also introduced a cryptocurrency payment token named DUS, which is pegged to the United States dollar on a one-to-one ratio.
Ms Low, who joined the company in 2022, said DUS will allow merchants and corporations to transact in crypto.
She added that the company is in discussions with crypto exchanges to list DUS and widen its possible uses.
DCS Card Centre chief executive Karen Low said DUS will allow merchants and corporations to transact in crypto.PHOTO: DCS CARD CENTRE Diners Club Singapore was founded in Singapore in 1973 as an exclusive franchise of Diners Club International, a United States-based global payments company whose Diners Club card is widely believed to be the world’s first credit card.
It was acquired from Malaysia’s Johan Holdings in 2021 for $103.6 million by Ezy Net, a Singapore electronic payment solutions provider.
Diners Club Singapore was rebranded by Ezy Net – which later changed its name to DCS Fintech Holdings – as DCS Card Centre in 2022.
Before the acquisition, Diners Club Singapore and its DinersPay subsidiary recorded combined losses of $656,000 in 2018, $5.2 million in 2019 and $3.04 million in 2020, which prompted Johan Holdings to sell its stakes in both entities.
The co-brand credit cards with Sheng Siong, Don Don Donki and Popular were introduced before the acquisition.
DCS Card Centre declined to reveal the number of holders for those cards, but said that billings and spending per active card have increased since its 2022 rebranding.
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“This transformation is designed to meet the changing demands of not just consumers, but merchants and corporations as well,” she added.
Ms Low, who previously led card divisions at DBS and UOB, also noted that DCS Card Centre’s status as a non-bank licensed to issue credit cards as governed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) gives it a unique advantage over other local fintech players.
Similar fintech payment companies are licensed by the MAS as major payment institutions under the Payment Services Act (PSA), which means that they can issue only debit cards.
The PSA regulates seven key activities and services – issuing accounts, domestic money transfers, cross-border money transfers, merchant acquisition, e-money issuance, digital payment token services, and money-changing.
“We can do all the activities pertaining to credit and charge card licensing, plus all the activities governed under the (PSA),” Ms Low said, adding that other activities such as domestic and cross-border money transfers are not part of its core business.
DCS Card Centre is also planning to embed its services into Singapore-based non-financial companies and online platforms to enable them to conduct payment-related activities such as e-wallets, loyalty programmes and e-commerce solutions.
“Our infrastructure becomes a valuable asset for companies lacking the necessary licences and operations to establish their payment programmes or digital wallets,” Ms Low said.
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