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Net1 announces the establishment of financial services ombudsman
Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc.
Registered in the state of Florida, USA
(IRS Employer Identification No. 98-0171860)
Nasdaq share code: UEPS
JSE share code: NT1
ISIN: US64107N2062
(“Net1” or the “Company”)
Net1 announces the establishment of financial services ombudsman
Johannesburg, June 5, 2017 – Net1 (NasdaqGS: UEPS; JSE: NT1) today announced
the establishment of an independent ombudsman, Advocate Neville Melville, who will
oversee dispute resolution regarding the Company’s financial services and value-added
product sales through various subsidiaries in South Africa.
Advocate Neville Melville is uniquely experienced in the dispute resolution field,
having been appointed as a functionary of the National Peace Accord in turbulent
KwaZulu-Natal in the run up to South Africa’s first democratic election. He then
established the Independent Complaints Directorate (now IPID) under the Mandela
Administration before becoming the Banking Ombudsman, in which capacity he served
for seven years. Thereafter, he assisted various ombudsman offices in South Africa and
other African countries with setting up their offices, training their staff members,
compiling manuals, reviewing their processes and conducting research. For the last four
years, he has headed the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud scheme, which is
accredited under statute. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
(London).
The services provided by the ombudsman will include receiving complaints from the
Company’s customers, including social grant recipients, seeking any outstanding
information necessary for a decision and settling the complaints by way of conciliation,
mediation, fact finding or decision binding upon the Company. The ombudsman will
function independently from the Company’s established query and dispute resolution
process.
Advocate Melville will commence with his activities with immediate effect and will
attend a community meeting as an independent observer in the Western Cape today,
together with representatives from the Company and Grindrod Bank, relating to
complaints raised by social grant recipients. The Company expects to publish the
ombudsman’s terms of reference, reporting obligations, contact details and a customer
service charter before the end of June 2017.
“We are delighted that Adv. Melville has agreed to establish the ombud function,” said
Herman Kotze, chief executive officer of Net1. “We are aware of persistent public
complaints about the functioning of our call center and dispute resolution process,
which we have been unable to verify despite our best efforts. We are committed to
providing our customers with outstanding service and we are confident that Neville’s
vast experience will assist us in achieving our goals, while providing independent
oversight and reporting,” he concluded.
About Net1 (www.net1.com)
Net1 is a leading provider of alternative payment systems that leverage its Universal
Electronic Payment System (“UEPS”) or utilize its proprietary mobile technologies.
The Company operates market-leading payment processors in South Africa and the
Republic of Korea. Through Transact24, Net1 offers debit, credit and prepaid
processing and issuing services for Visa, MasterCard, ChinaUnionPay, Alipay and
WeChat in China and other territories across Asia-Pacific, Europe and Africa, and the
United States. Through Masterpayment, Net1 provides payment processing and enables
working capital financing in Europe.
UEPS permits the Company to facilitate biometrically secure, real-time electronic
transaction processing to unbanked and under-banked populations of developing
economies around the world in an online or offline environment. Net1’s UEPS/EMV
solution is interoperable with global EMV standards that seamlessly enable access to
all the UEPS functionality in a traditional EMV environment. In addition to payments,
UEPS can be used for banking, healthcare management, payroll, remittances, voting
and identification.
Net1’s mobile technologies include its proprietary mobile payments solution - MVC,
which offers secure mobile-based payments, as well as mobile banking and prepaid
value-added services in developed and emerging countries.
Net1 has a primary listing on the NASDAQ and a secondary listing on the Johannesburg
Stock Exchange.
Investor Relations Contact:
Dhruv Chopra
Head of Investor Relations
Phone: +1-917-767-6722
Email: dchopra@net1.com
Media Relations Contact:
Bridget von Holdt
Business Director – Burson-Marsteller South Africa
Phone: +27-82-610-0650
Email: bridget.vonholdt@bm-africa.com
Johannesburg
June 5, 2017
Sponsor:
Rand Merchant Bank, a division of FirstRand Bank Limited
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