In an effort to capture a bigger slice of the Italian transaction processing market First Data has acquired the credit card business unit of direct bank Fineco
The sale includes software, employees and other processing capabilities used in the servicing of Fineco's cardholder accounts.
Pam Patsley, president of First Data International, says the acqusition "reinforces our operations in Italy and underscores our continued focus on growth in Europe".
The deal follows on from the establishment of a First Data processing centre in Milan. The company intends to apply the acquired local market knowledge to its own VisionPlus transaction processing software in an effort to boost its market penetration. The combined entity currently processes more than 500,000 credit cards in Italy.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.