P27 Nordic Payments Platform announced on Tuesday it has acquired Bankkgirot, a Sweden-Based clearing house for mass payments. According to P27, Bankgirot has a “central role” in the Swedish payment system and handles transactions of a total value of approximately SEK 73 billion per day.
While speaking about the acquisition, Lars Sjögren, CEO of P27 Nordic Payments Platform, stated:
“P27’s acquisition of Bankgirot is a very important step in our ambition to build a solid Nordic clearing infrastructure. This will enable the Nordics to take the lead in building the world’s first integrated cross-border and cross-currency payments region, facilitating the needs of banks, consumers and society at large.”
P27 also revealed that in the short term, there will be no changes to Bankgirot as a result of this transaction. Businesses and consumers will be able to continue using Bankgirot services as before and it is business as usual for the employees at Bankgirot. Magnus Sternbrink, Chair of the Board of Bankgirot further commented:
“We are happy that we could reach this signing today. P27 and Bankgirot would together be able to uphold stability in the current payment infrastructure, as well as create synergies and efficiency in the contemplated transformation to the new Nordic system platform.”
The acquisition is conditioned on regulatory approvals, including merger approval by the European Commission and ownership assessment by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. P27 expects to be able to close the acquisition in Q1 2021.