Payment services giant Worldline has announced that it would acquire French point-of-sale terminal provider Ingenico.

The merger will result in the world’s fourth-biggest financial services provider, with consolidated revenues of €5.3 billion last year.

Gills Grapinet, Worldline’s chairman and chief executive, said:

“Given that Worldline is only spending €2 billion in cash on the deal, the combined group will soon be able to embark on further acquisitions to keep up with larger US players such as Fiserve and Global Payments.”

The new entity’s ownership will be divided as follows: shareholders of the payment services giant Worldline will hold 65 percent, while the remaining 35 percent will be owned by Ingenico investors.

“Once the integration is well underway, we will be able to take part in the inevitable future consolidation of the industry since our sheet balance will be strong,” Grapinet said.

The payment service industry has witnessed similar mergers as Visa announced earlier this month acquiring Plaid that has presence in the crypto space.

“It is important for Europe to have payments champion able to compete with the global leaders in high technology industry,” the chairman said.

Cryptolydian earlier reported that France was on the sidelines of blockchain adoption, until François de Galhau, the governor of the Bank of France, said the institution was ready to launch a pilot project for a central bank digital currency in the first quarter of 2020.

On the other hand, French Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire said crypto-to-crypto transactions will no longer be subject to tax. “However, sales of cryptocurrencies for fiat will still be taxable with the nation’s treasury.”

Many experts believe that many countries around the world have witnessed a great improvement in 2019 as regards crypto regulations and adoption of blockchain technology, including France.

Several governments are aware that the technology is rapidly outpacing the regulations governing it.

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