New Zealand: Regulator oks Ingenico-Paymark deal

New Zealand’s competition regulator has finally cleared the way for global payment services company Ingenico to acquire 100% of the shares of payments provider Paymark.

Ingenico offers point of sale payment terminals, electronic payment software, and transaction services, while Paymark is owned by four of New Zealand’s five major trading banks: ANZ, BNZ, Westpac, and ASB.

Announcing its decision on Friday, November 2, the New Zealand Commerce Commission stated it had focused mainly on whether the combination of Paymark’s switch with Ingenico’s terminal business might reduce competition for the supply of payment terminals.

Commission Chair Dr Mark Berry said the Commission was satisfied the acquisition would not substantially lessen competition in any of the markets it assessed.

“This is a complex market that is evolving with the introduction of new payment systems technology. On balance, we considered that there were sufficient constraints in the market to ensure that Ingenico is motivated to keep the market for payment terminals attractive to merchants,” Dr Berry announced.

“Attempting to prevent or deter access by its terminal competitors to the Paymark switch would risk rivals building their own payment switch or encourage merchants to take up new payment technologies. We concluded that Ingenico would likely be incentivised to seek to maximise the volume of transactions that Paymark processes to avoid this risk.”

The Commission also concluded the acquisition would not affect competition in the supply of digital payment services.

Full Content: It Wire & ComCom