CERRITOS, Calif. -- RIA Financial Services, Cerritos, California, a wholly owned subsidiary of Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ: EEFT), today announced the launch of four new money transfer sending countries in Europe.

RIA has launched its money transfer services, offering in the Netherlands, Finland, Luxembourg and Cyprus by signing RIA money transfer agents. Additionally, RIA has been able to sign money transfer agents in Germany and France for the first time under its European payment institution license. Previously, RIA only maintained wholly owned stores in France and Germany under local money transfer licenses in each country.

Michael Brown, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Euronet Worldwide, Inc. stated:

This agent expansion in Europe is an important part of our money transfer growth strategy. There are approximately 20 million immigrants in France, seven million immigrants in Germany and three million immigrants in the Netherlands. These are immigrants from Africa, South Asia and Central and Eastern Europe for the most part and we have a competitive, fast, convenient and reliable money transfer offering to serve these consumers.

Entering and expanding in new markets and signing, training and rolling out agents who are from the ethnic communities of our consumers to provide RIA money transfer services at numerous convenient locations is critical to our success and we just opened four new important ethnic-rich markets in which to execute that strategy.

It was not inexpensive or easy for RIA to obtain its payment institution license or to passport that license to France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Luxembourg and Cyprus. However, this process does allow RIA to substantially expand the distribution of its services to many more convenient locations closer to where our consumers work and live.