Worldline has announced it is buying Banco Desio’s merchant acquiring activities for €100 million.

The payment services giant is also planning to set-up a commercial partnership with the Italian bank.

The French business said it plans to use Banco Desio’s banking network of more than 230 branches to distribute its payments products and services to merchant customers based in Italy.

Worldline boss Giles Grapinet said that the move is in line with the company's strategy to expand its merchant services in southern Europe.

According to The Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy is the third largest euro economy in Europe.

Research by the institution found that cash accounted for nearly 76 per cent of total payment volume last year.

But it also revealed that there has been a significant shift from cash to card and electronic payment adoption, with the region having one of the highest POS densities per inhabitants in Europe.

The bank's merchant acquiring business currently serves around 15,000 merchants and generates 40 million transactions per year.

“This transaction offers attractive development opportunities for Worldline in the coming years, leveraging a strong banking network as a key commercial channel in order to distribute Worldline’s full suite of end-to-end payment solutions to merchants,” said the chief executive.

The announcement follows Worldline’s acquisition of Axepta Italy early this year, as well as the set-up of the Worldline MS Italy joint venture.

Worldline said it expects the takeover to bring in an additional annual revenue of €15 million in year one, predicting that there will be “double-digit organic growth” over the next few years.

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