CaixaBank, the leading Spanish financial institution by market share, and Global Payments Inc., a leader in payment processing services, announced an agreement to form a 50/50 joint venture in the Brazilian merchant payments market.
The deal will enhance Global Payments' first incursion into the Latin American market. The new joint venture will be named Comercia Global Payments Brazil and, through its operating subsidiary, is already accepting Visa and MasterCard cards. Since 2010 Global Payments has partnered with CaixaBank to offer payment services to merchants in Spain, where they have a 24% market share.
This agreement will combine the technological and commercial expertise of the two companies, which have been at the forefront of payments innovation including contactless technology, digital payments and mobile solutions (mPOS). The strength of the joint venture represents a competitive advantage the two companies will bring to Brazil, a market that is growing at an annual rate of 20%.
Strong international presence and leadership
Global Payments processes more than 6 billion transactions worldwide, with a volume of 450 billion dollars and payment devices installed at more than a million businesses. Global Payments currently leads the merchants market (POS) in Spain (in partnership with CaixaBank), Russia and the Czech Republic, while it has significant market shares in Canada , the United Kingdom and the United States. It also has a firm position in Asia, where it operates in markets such as China, India, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Brunei, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines
As well as being the leading Spanish bank, CaixaBank is also the foremost operator in online banking, with 8.8 million customers; in mobile banking, with the most financial services users in Spain (3 million customers), and in electronic banking, with 12 million cards in circulation. It recently won the Best Retail Bank for Technology Innovation award from Euromoney magazine, while the international consultancy firm Forrester also recognised CaixaBank as the best mobile banking operator in Europe and the second best worldwide after Chase.
The Brazilian electronic payments market continued to grow in 2012, standing at a total of 240 billion euro with 487 million cards in circulation. By the end of last year there were a total of 3.7 million POS in the country, mainly concentrated in the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais.