Worldline has signed a major strategic commercial acquiring alliance with ANZ Bank, one of the largest banks in Asia-Pacific and Australia’s 3rd largest acquirer with a 20% share of transaction volumes processed in Australia.
Australia is a highly attractive and strategic market for Worldline. It is the 14th largest economy in the world and the 5th largest in Asia. It enjoys robust economic performance with a low unemployment rate and limited public indebtedness, sustained by its consistent policy frameworks, strong institutions, attractive investment environment and deep trade ties with Asia.
The Australian payment industry shows favourable dynamics with a sizable and growing addressable market and a high level of readiness and receptiveness towards cashless payment methods.
Similar to Europe in terms of market structure, payment standards and technology, the Australian payment market is large and dynamic. It has a high level adoption of electronic payments and is ranked #4 globally for payment terminals per capita, with consumer use of contactless cards and digital wallets amongst the highest in the world.
Furthermore, with a cash penetration still high, the Australian market offers an attractive growth opportunity driven by the shift from cash to card. This trend has accelerated during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, driven by a temporary contactless payment threshold improvement (from AUD 100 to AUD 200), mobile payments solutions promoted by banks and an increased use of online shopping that seems to likely become a permanent shift.
Australia: an attractive payment market
“The strategic alliance announced today between Worldline and ANZ is a landmark transaction for the Group and I am very honoured that Worldline has been selected by ANZ to take over the control of its merchant acquiring business as the long term partner of choice to deliver state-of-the-art products and services to its very large portfolio of merchant customers,” comments Gilles Grapinet, Worldline’s Chairman and CEO.
“Australia is a highly attractive strategic market as it is very close to Europe in terms of market structure, standards and technology, with a high level adoption of electronic payments. Backed by a solid macroeconomic environment and a strong long-term growth potential, the Australian market represents a rare opportunity to scale-up our platforms and roll-out our innovative solutions in very close partnership with such a leading institution as ANZ.”
“This long-term and exclusive joint-venture is based on a shared vision for delivering value added Merchant Acquiring products and services in Australia, through the combination of Worldline’s global scale, best-in-class technologies and expertise, with ANZ’s vast banking footprint and distribution power. We are particularly pleased to welcome soon circa 200 merchant acquiring and payment technology experts from ANZ.
Finally, this partnership between ANZ and Worldline highlights the relevance of the newly created Worldline’s Merchant Services – Financial Institutions value proposition we will further deploy in Europe and beyond to cement future bank alliances in Merchant Services as more and more financial institutions are currently initiating similar strategic initiatives,” Grapinet concludes.
