UK Regulator Clears Global Payments’ $24B Worldpay Deal at Phase 1
CMA Clears $40 Billion Three-Way Swap
The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority has cleared Global Payments Inc.’s planned purchase of Worldpay, lifting a major regulatory hurdle to one of the largest shake-ups in global merchant processing. The Phase-1 decision, published Monday, confirmed the CMA “has cleared the anticipated acquisition,” concluding that the merger raised no competition concerns requiring a deeper probe.
The deal, announced in April, is structured as a three-cornered trade between Global Payments, Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), and private-equity firm GTCR. Under the plan, Atlanta-based Global Payments will purchase Worldpay for $24.25 billion—net $22.7 billion later than tax assets—while tradeing its Issuer answers (TSYS) division to FIS for $13.5 billion. The combined merchant-acquiring arm would process more than 94 billion transactions a year worth about $3.7 trillion across 175 countries, company filings show.
Investor Takeaway
From RBS Streamline to GTCR: Worldpay’s Ownership Carousel
Worldpay’s ownership trail mirrors the consolidation of modern payments. Once part of RBS Streamline, it was sold to Advent International and Bain Capital in 2010, floated in London in 2015, and acquired by U.S. rival Vantiv in 2017 before adopting the Worldpay name. FIS bought the company in 2019 for roughly $43 billion, only to trade a 55 percent stake to GTCR five years later at an $18.5 billion valuation.
Global Payments itself traces back to National Data Corp. and expanded through Heartland Payment Systems in 2016 before merging with TSYS in 2019 in an all-stock $21.5 billion transaction. That merger gave it both merchant and issuer operations, a dual structure it is now unwinding. The 2025 transaction swaps back the issuer side to FIS and folds in Worldpay’s larger merchant network, turning Global Payments once again into a pure-play acquirer—only on a much largeger scale.
Why the Regulator Didn’t Object
Although the CMA’s full reasoning will follow later, the quick Phase-1 approval suggests the watchdog views plenty of competition remaining in U.K. merchant acquiring. Players such as Barclaycard, Worldline/Ingenico, Adyen, Stripe, and independent retradeers still dominate parts of the market. The regulator’s focus in recent years has shifted toward scheme and processing fees charged by Visa and Mastercard rather than acquirer consolidation.
The Payment Systems Regulator is already examining those scheme costs and considering transparency measures or fee caps, higher up the value chain. Against that backdrop, the Global Payments-Worldpay merger appears not to alter competition dynamics materially in merchant services.
Investor Takeaway
One Leg Still Pending
A related CMA review—the purchase of TSYS by FIS—remains open. The regulator rejected FIS’s initial filing on Oct. 10 as incomplete and paused the review clock while it awaits new information. That leaves the issuer side of the April transaction still awaiting approval, meaning the three-party trade cannot fully .
What the Clearance Means for the Sector
For Global Payments, absorbing Worldpay clarifies its focus around merchant processing across retail, hospitality, e-commerce, and integrated software. Analysts expect near-term efforts to target large enterprise and omnichannel merchants, using scale to negotiate more effectively with card schemes and alternative-payment networks.
FIS, freed from direct merchant exposure, returns to its core strengths in issuer processing and banking technology. The TSYS acquisition would reinforce that base once cleared. For GTCR, the deal crystallises gains from its short-term Worldpay investment, exchanging its majority stake for cash and an estimated 15 percent shareholding in Global Payments—an archetypal private-equity rotation.
The U.K. remains among Europe’s most competitive payments markets, though rising scheme fees and across the chain. If the PSR moves to expose or cap interchange costs, acquirers’ economics could shift, influencing how the merged Global Payments-Worldpay entity prices merchant services.
Monday’s ruling clears the way for the companies to complete their integration, marking the latest turn in a consolidation cycle that began with RBS Streamline in the 1980s and has now brought one of Britain’s oldest merchant processors under Atlanta ownership.
