The economic crisis halted M&A activity
for a while, but the
market picked up around June. The
most active areas, were alternative payments processing, ATM
testing, e-commerce and e-billing.
e-billing
Go deeper with GlobalData
A
Fiserv study found e-billing more effective and there is an
industry wide
acceleration towards e-billing.
The biggest moves in e-billing included
Bottomline Technologies’ acquisition of Allegient Systems, a
legal e-billing and analytics provider; and
Ogone Payment Services’ acquisition of India-based e-Billing
Solutions (EBS), which followed the Indian government’s
initiative to migrate to e-billing to reduce risk.
MasterCard, meanwhile, expanded its e-billing
processing agreement with
iPay, which will allow iPay’s biller connections to be
available to bill payment originators that use MasterCard RRPS
e-bill processing services.
In France, mobile payments provider
BOKU teamed up with Bouygues and SFR Telecom to expand direct
carrier billing coverage and expect to reach 32 million customers
who will pay for digital goods and services using only their
existing wireless service account with the charge appearing on
their carrier bill.
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalDataOn the B2B side,
IKB Leasing Group (IKB) signed a deal with data interchange
firm Crossgate that allows IKB to send e-voices to its customers
via Crossgate’s Business Ready Network.
e-commerce
In e-commerce and alternative payments, the
biggest moves included
eBay’s purchase of GSI Commerce, whose services include payment
processing and advertising analytics;
WorldPay’s acquisition of Envoy Services to focus on e-commerce
payments, fraud prevention; and
Verifone’s acquisition of Global Bay Mobile Technologies and
Point, one of northern Europe’s largest providers of POS
services for retailers, with which Verifone aims to create the
world’s largest infrastructure for rapid deployment of alternative
payments.
And let’s not forget
Visa’s acquisition of Fundamo and its
extra investment in Monetise.
Processing and remittance
On the processing and remittance side, the
companies
that made the biggest mark were Western Union, Clear2Pay and
Euronet:
Western Union bought Finint, one of its money transfer agents
in Europe and shortly after bought business payments provider
Travelex to grow its B2B cross-border remittance service and
capitalise on what CEO Hikmet Ersek called a “largely underserved”
market.
Clear2Pay made
several strategic acquisitions; most notably with the purchase
of payment test applications company
Lexcel Solutions and ATM testing business
Level Four Software Holdings. It also teamed
up with VocaLink to push Immediate Payments and receivables
processing solutions provider Wausau Financial Systems to offer
end-to-end receivables and payables technology for financial
institutions and their business customers with the launch of an
Integrated Payments and Receivables Hub.
One company to watch out for in the next will
be
Euronet, which obtained a payment services
license from the Financial Service Authority (FSA) in the UK.
It has
bought the Polish ATM network of Diebold as well as the
Romanian ATM Smart PayNetwork and signed its
first outsourcing deal in Germany with Ikano Bank to provide
services for the German-based bank’s ATMs.
As banks look to improve
margins and manage risk better, solution providers seized
strategic buy, merge and partnership opportunities – and this trend
of acquisitions and mergers will certainly continue into the New
Year.
