Intesa Sanpaolo, Unicredit, Banca Sella and more. Here is who fears (and who is not) Nexi-Sia
All the banks that fear the giant Nexi-Sia very or little, according to what emerges from the Antitrust preliminary investigation provision. Emanuela Rossi's article
An investigation to evaluate the acquisition of Sia by Nexi. Last week, the Italian Antitrust Authority decided to open a procedure to understand whether the merger between the two Italian digital payments players could lead to a dominant position in the market for the resulting group. Moreover, the operation, writes the Authority chaired by Roberto Rustichelli in its launch, "involves various operators, both from the point of view of demand and that of supply" and affects numerous sectors of the sector "in particular merchant acquiring services , processing, issuing of payment cards, retail clearing of payments, transmission of interbank data and also services for the supply and maintenance of ATMs ". But let's see, within the sector, what are the current and future market shares and who are the main competitors.
MERCHANT ACQUIRING SERVICES
On the merchant acquiring services front, according to the start-up provision, following the merger there would be a market share of between 45 and 50%, mostly brought by Nexi as Sia currently holds one. percentage less than 1. A share that according to the parties should remain unchanged even if the supply of POS is included, currently covered for 35-40% by Nexi and 5-10% by Sia. Other operators active on the market have much lower shares which – according to the parties' estimates – are equal to 5-10% for Unicredit, Iccrea and Banca Sella. Therefore, according to the Antitrust Authority, the transaction “could lead to restrictive effects of competition in the supply of merchant acquiring services, with the establishment or strengthening of a position characterized by considerable market power for the post-merger entity”.
PROCESSING SERVICES
On the national debit card front, in Italy Nexi holds a share of 20-25% and Sia una 40-45%: with the merger, the new entity would therefore cover 65-70% of the market. Similarly, in our country the processing of international credit cards sees a share of 20-25% in Nexi and 45-50% in Sia. Also in this case, therefore, after the merger the new group would come to hold a share of the market equal to 70-75%.
PAYMENT CARD ISSUE SERVICES
Space then for credit card issuing services. Nexi currently has a market share of 20-25% and Sia less than 1%, while neither is active in the Italian market for debit card issuing services. In these markets, on the other hand, there are "numerous and qualified competitors – writes the Guarantor Authority – such as Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (which has a 10-15% share), Unicredit SpA and American Express (both with a 5-10% share) .
SMART PAYMENT CARD PRODUCTION AND CUSTOMIZATION SERVICES
After the merger, the resulting group would have a share in the overall market for the supply of smart payment cards (which includes the supply of smart cards and the personalization service) of approximately 5-10%, considering the size beyond borders. Italians, and 35-40%, if instead we consider the national dimension (data in volume). The parties have also provided the Authority with market shares for the sole supply of the personalization service which is equal – for the size of the supranational market – to 1-5% for each of the two and – for the national one – 25%. -30% for Nexi and 10-15% for Sia; therefore, post merger it would reach 35-40%. In the Italian market, Piazza Verdi recalls, there are several other specialized operators, also active at a supranational level, such as Thales (which has a 15-20% share), ST Incard (10-15%) and Idemia (5- 10%).
RETAIL CLEARING SERVICES OF PAYMENTS (CLEARING)
On the other hand, we are talking about absolutely modest figures in the field of the provision of SEPA payment clearing services: at the European market level, Nexi and Sia each hold a share of less than 1%. Moreover, it is a market in which "there are numerous and qualified clearing houses competitors such as EBA Clearing, equensWorldline, SIX Interbank Clearing, STET – writes the Antitrust -, all belonging to multinational groups and active in various EU countries". Therefore the operation cannot create “detrimental effects of the competitive dynamics in this market”.
On the other hand, the situation regarding the Italian market is different because the services are offered by three domestic clearing houses, namely Nexi, Sia and Iccrea. Following the transaction, therefore, the two groups would hold an aggregate stake of 90-95%, with Nexi currently holding 40-45% and Sia 45-50%.
INTERBANK DATA TRANSMISSION SERVICES
In the provision of logical network services, Sia covers a market share of 5-10% at the supranational level and 55-60% at the national level (with the remaining 40-45% held by Swift). Nexi, on the other hand, is not directly active in the provision of these services and limits itself to providing third party services.
ATM SERVICES
After the merger, according to estimates of Nexi and Sia, the two companies would have a share for the supply of ATMs (including software and related services) of 5-10% at European level and equal to 40-45% at national level (respectively with Nexi at 25-30% and Sia at 10-15%). According to the parties, the Antitrust reports, with regard to its positioning on the market, no competitive problems would arise because, among other things, "Sia's share would essentially derive from the relationship with Unicredit SpA and the current positioning of Nexi would be the result of long-term relationship that Icbpi (Nexi's predecessor) had established with numerous banks and which would be in the process of diminishing ”. Furthermore, "there would be several rival suppliers capable of exerting strong competitive pressure".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/nexi-sia-timori-banche/ on Sun, 12 Sep 2021 13:13:21 +0000.