The Briefing on Payments

27 countries

€2.3bn

Worldline, a subsidiary of Atos, agreed to acquire Switzerland-based firm SIX Payment Services for €2.3bn ($2.7bn).

The deal, pending regulatory approval, will increase Worldline’s headcount by 1,600 and it is expected that that it will increase Worldline’s merchant services business and financial services business by 65% and 12% respectively.

100%

The number of merchants in the Netherlands that expect real-time payments to replace payment cards is all of them.

This is according to a report by ACI Worldwide and Ovum. Worldwide, 77% of merchants expect the same outcome.

82% of merchants in Asia were found to be the most positive about real-time payments improving their customer experience.

Also, 78% percent of merchants this year believed real-time payments to reduce costs, up from 57% a year ago. The number of merchants expecting real-time payments to enhance customer service increased to 78% in 2018 from 59% in the previous year.

800 million

Instagram had 800 million users at the end of 2017 and this number has increased as Instagram launches its payment service in the UK.

The feature had been under trial in the US for a year and has finally been set up in the UK.

Despite the Instagram app being firmly established on many UK mobile phones, the number of users is still rising – 63.9% of 15-24 year old online shoppers used Instagram in 2017 versus 57.6% the previous year, according to GlobalData’s E-retail survey.

73%

Nearly three-quarters (73%) of New Zealanders utilise contactless payments, according to a study from Mastercard.

More than 1,000 New Zealanders participated in the study and found that 63% of respondents use ‘tap-and-go’ payments at least once a week. This is an increase of 8% year-on-year.

Mastercard noted that people aged between 25 and 34 years (millennials) are driving such payments, with about nine in ten utilising the contactless technology.

The proportion of New Zealanders who use the technology always or whenever they can was also found to have surged, as more than 36% people said they use it whenever they can.