Global Payments, TSYS merger a sign of the payments times

The recently announced $22 billion Global Payments merger with TSYS is good news for consumers, according to GlobalData.

The tie-up closely follows Fiserv’s $39 billion deal to buy First Data and Fidelity National Information Services’ (FIS) agreement to acquire Worldpay for $43 billion. It is also part of a recent trend by merchant acquirers to increase globalisation of their services in order to better compete in the omnichannel, e-commerce and digital payment spaces, GlobalData notes. Cards previously dominated, but globalisation in consumer payments - especially online - means alternative tools are seeing increased usage.

Global Payments’s core business is helping merchants process card, mobile, and online payments with another business, whilst TSYS focuses on helping card issuers and other financial institutions accept and clear payments. “The two as a combined company makes strategic sense. It will be able to provide merchants with fully end-to-end payment acceptance services, as well as offering merchant services at a larger global scale,” says Bhavika Shah, Payments Analyst at GlobalData.

“Consumers will benefit from these consolidation deals by being provided more choice at checkout. We can expect these new giants to start pushing smaller players out of the global payment acceptance market – and as globalisation filters down to smaller merchants, out of domestic markets too. This will not be the last merger we see in this space.”