(4 March 2016 – United Kingdom) Following calls from the UK Payment Services Regulator (PSR) for banks to sell the Vocalink, rumours suggest that MasterCard has approached the banking owners about a £1 billion (A$1.9 billion) takeover of the UK payments processor.
The PSR said that banks should sell their stakes in VocaLink to help increase innovation and competition in the nation's critical payments infrastructure.
According to Sky News, MasterCard has hired Citibank to advise it on the approach.
According to its sources, Sky News says Mastercard is keen to acquire at least a partial stake in VocaLink to diversify its payments business.
In the UK, VocaLink processes over 90 percent of salaries, more than 70 percent of household bills and almost all state benefits. Nearly every business and person in the UK uses its technology and last year the company processed over 11 billion transactions with a value of £6 trillion.