AIB and First Data’s acquisition of Payzone gets regulatory green light

AIB and US firm First Data have been given the regulatory green light to acquire consumer payments firm Payzone in a deal worth €100 million.

The European Commission approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition of Semeral Limited, Payzone's holding company, by AIB and First Data.

The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition, part of a sequence of bank acquisitions of payment companies, would not raise competition concerns “given, on the one hand, the limited horizontal overlaps between the parties’ activities, and on the other hand, the absence of anti-competitive effects resulting from the combination of the activities of” the three companies.

Payzone is the largest consumer payments network in the Republic, with more than 7,000 retail agents and more than 300,000 registered users.

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The company processes mobile phone and travel card top-ups, debit and credit card transactions, motorway toll payments as well as pre-paid utility, parking payments and parcel collection services.

Under the deal, AIB will own a 75 per cent stake in the joint venture with First Data taking the remaining 25 per cent.