Worldwide provider of electronic transaction processing solutions, Global Payments, has announced a joint venture with la Caixa – the largest retail bank in Spain, providing merchant acquiring services to merchants in Spain.

la Caixa, which has headquarters in Barcelona and was founded over a century ago, holds a 21 per cent market share in merchant acquiring, and has the largest consumer banking footprint in Spain, with over 10.5 million customers across 5,000 branches.

“We are honoured that la Caixa has partnered with Global Payments, and we believe that the bank’s market presence, coupled with our singularity focused sales efforts will drive long-term growth,” commented Paul R. Garcia, chairman and chief executive officer of Global Payments.

Global Payments paid la Caixa €125million to acquire a 51 per cent majority ownership in the venture using existing cash resources in Europe and debt from its new credit facilities.

The remaining 49 per cent is retained by la Caixa, which has contributed its existing merchant acquiring business to the joint venture. The bank has also agreed to a twenty-year marketing alliance, in which la Caixa will refer customers to the joint venture.

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