Indian-headquartered Financial Software and Systems (FSS) has acquired a 46% stake in Standard Bank's South African payment processing subsidiary Ecentric.
With a customer portfolio comprising 50+ Tier-1 banks and retailers, Ecentric has a strong presence in domestic and other African markets for its payment acceptance services, which cover a dozen sub-Saharan countries.
Offering a suite of card processing services, Ecentric’s payment platforms connect over seventy thousand retail channels to card issuing and payment acquiring systems, processing in excess of a billion transactions annually and exceeding R600 billion in value.
The deal gives FSS a foothold in the African payments market and a platform to onsell its own complementary POS products.
Larry McCarthy, head strategic investments and alliances, Standard Bank, says: “The introduction of FSS as a strategic equity partner into Ecentric will further cement Ecentric’s position as a leading provider of value-added payment services to its clients and accelerate its growth into new products, across new markets in Africa as well as furthering commercial ties between Africa and India.”
Financial terms are not disclosed, although FSS has an option to increase its stakeholding over time.