Yahoo Finance

PRESS RELEASE

After France and Spain with the Ticket Restaurant program, Italy is the third Edenred country to launch Apple Pay, offering ExpendiaSmart employee beneficiaries an easy, secure and private way to pay.

The ExpendiaSmart program is designed to optimize Italian employees` business travel expenses, before, during and after their trip. It is an "all-in-one" solution combining a payment card, a booking platform and an online expense account management system.

Thanks to Apple Pay, employee users of ExpendiaSmart will soon be able to pay for their business expenses directly with their iPhone or Apple Watch^[1] at all affiliated merchants and service providers equipped with a contactless payment terminal.

Security and privacy are at the core of Apple Pay. When employees use ExpendiaSmart with Apple Pay, the actual card numbers are not stored on the device, nor on Apple servers. Instead, a unique Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted and stored securely within the device. Each transaction is authorized using a one-time unique dynamic security code.

Edenred began offering Apple Pay to Ticket Restaurant card users in France and Spain in 2016. More than 400,000 employees in France and 100 000 in Spain can now pay for their meals with their iPhone or Apple Watch.

Bertrand Dumazy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Edenred, said: "A pioneer and leader in the digital revolution, we are always looking for ways to provide additional value-added services to the users of our solutions, their employers and the members of our acceptance network. Just like their counterparts in France and Spain, employee beneficiaries in Italy will now be able to carry out value-added transactions thanks to Apple Pay, an easy, secure and private payment method."

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Edenred, which invented the Ticket Restaurant^® meal voucher and is the world leader in prepaid corporate services, designs and manages solutions for companies and public institutions seeking to provide purchasing power, optimize their expenses and motivate their teams. The Group`s solutions are used across a network of 1.4 million affiliated merchants by 43 million employees working for 750,000 client organizations. The portfolio is built around two main business lines:

• Employee benefits (Ticket Restaurant^®, Ticket Alimentación, Ticket CESU, Childcare Vouchers, etc.)

• Expense management (Ticket Log, Ticket Car, UTA, Ticket Clean Way, Repom, etc.)

Edenred also offers complementary solutions for managing transactional ecosystems, covering corporate payments (Edenred Corporate Payment), incentives and rewards (Ticket Compliments, Ticket Kadéos) and public social programs.
Listed on the Euronext Paris stock exchange, Edenred operates in 42 countries, with close to 8,000 employees. In 2016, the transaction volume managed by Edenred amounted to almost €20 billion.

Ticket Restaurant^® and all other trade names of Edenred products and services are registered trademarks of Edenred SA.