equensWorldline SE (formerly Equens) is a

payment card Payment cards are part of a payment system issued by financial institutions, such as a bank, to a customer that enables its owner (the cardholder) to access the funds in the customer's designated bank accounts, or through a credit account and ma ...

and

payment processor A payment processor is a system that enables financial transactions, commonly employed by a merchant, to handle transactions with customers from various channels such as credit cards and debit cards or bank accounts. They are usually broken dow ...

headquartered in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Nethe ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

which serves the European market. Since 2019, it has been a wholly owned subsidiary of

Worldline The world line (or worldline) of an object is the path that an object traces in 4-dimensional spacetime. It is an important concept in modern physics, and particularly theoretical physics. The concept of a "world line" is distinguished from con ...

. As of 2020, equensWorldline had additional branch offices in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

, Germany,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small land ...

and sales representatives in the UK.

History

''Equens'' was established in 2006 as Europe's first pan-European payment processor. This followed the

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

of Europe's two largest payment processors:

Interpay Interpay Nederland B.V. was the Dutch payment processor and payment product provider from 1994 to 2006. Interpay owned PIN, Chipknip, and Incasso. In 2005, they spun off Currence and in 2006 they merged to form Equens. History Interpay was f ...

from The Netherlands and the Transaktionsinstitut für Zahlungsverkehrsdienstleistungen AG from Germany. In July 2008, ''Equens SE'' was formed as

Societas Europaea A ''societas Europaea'' (, ; "European society" or "company"; plural: ; abbr. SE) is a public company registered in accordance with the corporate law of the European Union (EU), introduced in 2004 with the Council Regulation on the Statute fo ...

, initially operating as a holding company. In September 2008, Equens SE extended its activities to Italia, by forming Equens Italia, a 50:50 joint venture with Italy's Istituto Centrale delle Banche Popolari Italiane. In 2011, Equens Italia was became wholly owned subsidiary of Equens SE, and in 2013 it turned into a permanent establishment of Equens. In 2016, equensWorldline was created, following the merger between Equens SE and Worldline's Financial Services activities in France,

Benelux The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a Political union, politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. Initially, Worldline hold 63.6% of the shares, the rest (36.4%) being held by Dutch, German and Italian banks. However, Worldline had a call option on the minority shares, which it exercised in 2019, hence becoming the sole owner of equensWorldline.

References

External links

* {{Dutch financial services companies Companies based in Utrecht (province)