The Delta Capital Group (Delta) has signed an agreement to acquire the credit card portfolio of Massy Cards.

 The move was announced on October 5 at the Fintech Islands conference in Barbados.

 Payments have been finalised for the transaction which received regulatory approval in September. 

Delta was founded in 2020 by Zachary Harding, who is the majority shareholder and serves as executive chairman. Partners of the Private Equity firm include shareholder Ivan Carter, former CFO of Sagicor Jamaica who serves as Delta Group CEO, and Anthony Dunn, who serves as Delta Group Chief Investment Officer. 

This acquisition sees Jamaica-based Delta acquiring 100 per cent of a Barbados company which has 30,000 Massy credit cards issued in Barbados. Massy, whose 99-year history as a deeply rooted household brand throughout the Eastern Caribbean, has provided credit card and loyalty cards to its customers for several decades. The cards are a financial staple throughout the region for the purchase of products and services.

According to Harding, the Massy cards will eventually be transitioned to the MasterCard platform and rebranded as DeltaPaay.

Cardholders would then be able to access global financial services. Once the transition is complete, Delta aims to swiftly overlay healthcare services onto its payment structure via its telehealth platform, Delta Health & Wellness.

Harding describes the move as transformational, saying: “For Caribbean finance this is comparable to the shift from hand delivered mail to email. DeltaPaay will enable a wider bracket of Caribbean people, including the unbanked, to take part in the modern digital economy, including paying for goods and services online. Most importantly, our people will have access to pay for online healthcare services through Delta’s telemedicine platform, even if they do not have a bank account.”

Carter, a Barbados native and career banker who served as chief financial officer of Sagicor Jamaica for more than 15 years, noted: “I have been fortunate to lead many tech transitions in the financial services space in the Caribbean, and what we are about to do now with DeltaPaay will be a total game changer. It is a dream come true to be part of such a high impact change in the region.”

According to a statement issued by Massy Barbados Limited (MCBL), current cardholders will shortly be receiving letters regarding their account status. All current card operations and programmes including loyalty programmes will continue during the transition period as the companies complete the hand over process.