Equals Gp Regulatory News (EQLS)

25 September 2019

Equals Group plc

("Equals" or "the Group" or "the Company")

Agreement with Mastercard

Equals Group PLC, the e-banking and international payments group, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a new 5-year agreement with Mastercard.

Under the deal, Mastercard will provide assistance to Equals to grow its various card-based businesses through improved economic terms based on transaction volumes and also assist in the process of Equals becoming an issuer of all its cards.

Ian Strafford-Taylor, Equals Group CEO, commented: "We are delighted to have signed a new long-term deal with Mastercard. We have been a Mastercard-affiliated Company for many years but this deal further cements our relationship and the closer ties and improved economics will enable Equals to accelerate its growth prospects in all areas of its business."

This announcement contains inside information.

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About Equals

Equals is a leading challenger brand in banking and payments that disintermediates the incumbent banks with a superior user experience and low-cost operating model. Our business enables personal and business customers to make easy, low-cost payments both domestically and in a broad range of currencies and across a range of products all via one integrated system. The Equals platform facilitates payments either direct to Bank Accounts or at 35 million merchants and over 1 million ATM's in a broad range of countries globally via Mobile apps, the Internet, SMS, wire transfer and MasterCard/VISA debit cards.

Equals provides money movement services to both personal and business customers through four channels: Currency Cards, Physical Currency, International Payments and Bank Accounts. The Currency Card and Physical Currency offerings facilitate multiple overseas payments at points of sale and ATM's whereas the International Payments channel supports wire transfer foreign exchange transactions direct to Bank Accounts. For Corporates, Equals has a market-leading business-expenses solution based around its corporate platform and prepaid card. This service can yield significant savings on a Corporate's expenses and procurement both domestically and overseas, through better controls and improved transparency. The platform also streamlines the downstream administrative processes and integrates into accounting software, thus saving costs. Equals offers retail and business bank accounts with all the functionality you would expect from a bank, namely faster payments, BACs, direct debits, international payments and a debit card.