FinTech Mergers a-Plenty, While in Trump Era, Fewer Fines for Firms

FinTech Mergers a-Plenty, While in Trump Era, Fewer Fines for Firms

On the regulatory front, last week saw a bit of news about mergers – actually, more than a bit.

Specifically, the agreement for US credit card processing company Vantiv to buy Worldpay, was finalized for $10.4 billion. The combined entity, using annual data at the end of 2016, will be processing at least $1.5 trillion in payment volume across 40 billion transactions spread throughout more than 140 countries. Pro-forma, the merger creates a firm with more than $3.2 billion in annual net revenue.

The merger, of course, spotlights a trend of consolidation within the payments space, and to be sure, in terms of size and scope, the Vantiv deal is one for the record books. But turning the page in that book begs the question about a smaller deal, at $1.2 billion, but with far-reaching implications: Whither the Ant Financial/MoneyGram deal?

As was noted late last month in the New York Post, Republican Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), who serves as co-chairman of the Congressional Executive Committee on China, said that Ant Financial should in fact be blocked from snapping up MoneyGram, chiefly because Ant is 15 percent owned by the Chinese government.

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