Banco Santander has acquired technology assets from the European merchant payments business of disgraced German payments processor Wirecard.
Around 500 employees currently managing the acquired assets will become part of Santander’s global merchant services team under the umbrella of the Getnet global franchise.
Ana Botín, Banco Santander executive chairman, says: “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.”
The €100 million deal is the latest in a series of firesales of Wirecard’s technology assets by the administrators to the estate following the collapse of the German processor in the wake of criminal financial accounting irregularities.
The acquisition does not include Wirecard companies and Santander will not assume any legal liability relating to Wirecard AG and Wirecard Bank AG or its past actions, says Botin.
In October, Santander announced plans to bring together its most disruptive payments businesses, including Getnet, within a new autonomous business PagoNxt to compete with non-bank digital payments platforms.
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Originally published at finextra