(9 September 2021 – Australia) The proposed merger between eftpos, BPAY and the New Payments Platform (NPP) has been approved by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to create the new entity Australian Payments Plus (AP+).
The ACCC authorised the proposed merger between the three payments infrastructure providers on Thursday after accepting court enforceable undertakings proposed last month and accepting their offer to maintain the eftpos payments scheme until at least 2025.
Concerns were raised the merger could weaken payment competition, with the parties offering to maintain current levels of service, including least-cost routing (LCR) and the eftpos payments rails.
“We do not consider that the merger of these parties will substantially lessen completion in any payments market, after taking into account the court enforceable undertaking” stated ACCC Chair, Rod Sim.
“The ACCC recognises that rapid change is taking place in the sector, but ultimately it was satisfied that, with the undertaking, the amalgamation will not have a significant adverse impact on eftpos’ services of the availability of LCR. The Reserve Bank of Australia will also continue to take action to safeguard the availability of LCR, which, when combined with the commitments in the undertaking, will minimise the risk that eftpos is diminished or that LCR will become less available” Mr Sims added.
“This is an exciting day for all users of Australia’s payments system, as we are now in a position to better coordinate investments in payment innovations, bring new products to market faster and work together to bring down transaction costs” committee chair Robert Milline said in a statement.