As the assets of the doomed German fintech, Wirecard is up for grab, Banco Santander has become the latest to acquire several highly specialized technological assets from the merchant Payments business of Wirecard.
Announced on Monday, the Spanish lender has strategically acquired Wirecard assets in the merchant payment solutions arena for issuance and services and agreed to onboard around 500 employees currently managing Wirecard assets. All of them will be a part of the bank’s global merchant services team under the umbrella of Getnet.
This deal, according to the bank, will extend its global open payments platform architecture by enhancing its services in trade and payments. Furthermore, the acquisition will reinforce and accelerate Banco Santander’s growth in Europe.
“At Santander, we aim to provide the best payment solutions and services to our customers. The assets and talent we will gain as part of the acquisition will help us accelerate Getnet’s expansion plans in Europe, while also increasing our product development capacity,” Banco Santander Executive Chairman, Ana Botín stated.
The acquisition came at a time when the Spanish bank is focusing on international expansion and has already penetrated Latin America with its merchant Trading Platform .
Approval for the acquisition is currently pending with the regulators. However, both parties will jointly initiate the efforts to transition customers and vendors to the new platform.
Fall of a Giant
Wirecard was once the high-flying German fintech but fell earlier this year as €1.9 billion went missing from its books. That incident led to the stepping down and arrest of its long-running CEO, Marcus Braun, and the fintech also entered into insolvency.
Companies spanning in many areas are now bidding for the assets of Wirecard. Earlier, Railsbank, a rival of Wirecard, bought its UK business, while another Munich-based identity verification startup purchased the Wirecard Communication Services.
