IBS Journal December 2015


Worldline and Equens team up to create largest pan-European processing body


Payment firms Worldline and Equens have announced that they will be joining their payments businesses, while the former will also purchase the latter’s acquiring subsidiary PaySquare. As part of the merger, Worldline will


own 63.6% of the combined Equens World- line business, while the owners of Equens will hold the remaining 36.4%. The merged firm will be the largest


pan-European financial processing compa- ny. It’s thought that it will manage around 100 million payment cards and process 10 billion transactions a year. Initial earnings targets for the group are said to be around the €700 million mark. The top five clients (and sharehold-


ers) of Equens – ABN Amro, ING, Rabobank, DZ Bank and ICBPI – have committed to renewing their contracts with the company for another five years, despite the dilution of their stakes.


Integration Equens’ €72 million PaySquare business is set to be integrated into the Worldline Merchant Services and Terminals unit. Due to the ‘complementarity’ of


the two company’s portfolios, believes Equens CEO Michael Steinbach, clients of both Worldline and Equens will be able to ‘substantially benefit’ in terms of time- to-market and available solutions. Worldline CEO Giles Grapinet adds


that ‘from a shareholders perspective this combination will provide significant value’. The transaction is expected to close


during Q2 2016, following regulatory and antitrust approvals. Worldline was jettisoned by former


owner Atos in 2014. Atos had previously said that it was going to re-organise the payments firm, rather than sell it off. Alex Hamilton


Habib Canadian Bank rolls out new investment management system


Habib Canadian Bank has implemented new investment management software from local vendor, Strategic Information Technology (SIT), to expand its range of investment products. The provided solution is part of SIT’s


broader banking software offering, Port- folio Plus. Portfolio Plus and its vendor are well-established in Canada, with financial institutions such as CFF Bank, CIBC, Equitable, Equity Financial Trust, Tangerine Bank and Effort Trust on the client list. Muslim Hassan, CEO and president of


the bank, says that the project is a result of the realisation that ‘Canadian families want the opportunity to take advantage of registered investment plans’. The new range of products, support-


ed by SIT’s software, comprises a reg- istered retirement savings plan (RRSP), registered retirement income fund (RRIF)


and tax-free savings account (TFSA). These are a ‘missing link’ in Habib Cana- dian Bank’s current portfolio of invest- ment products, says Hassan. The solution will be interfaced to


Habib Canadian Bank’s core banking sys- © IBS Intelligence 2015 www.ibsintelligence.com


tem, Hplus. The system was developed by the IT department of the Canadian bank’s parent, Switzerland-based Habib Bank, back in the mid-1990s and is used across the group.


Tanya Andreasyan 25 Toronto © John Vetterli, Flickr


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