The Italian subsidiary of US data communications firm Transaction Network Services has completed its acquisition of local transaction transport specialist Openet.
All Openet staff are now employed by TNS Italy, and company founder Domenico Mistè has become a member of the board.
TNS says the Italian transaction transportation market is one of the largest and fastest growing in Europe, with 30 million debit and credit cards, 500,000 POS terminals and 30,000 ATMs.
James Mullen, executive vice president and general manager, TNS' international systems division, adds that prior to the acquisition, Openet serviced 15% of the market with its dial-up solution.
"Our pan-European private network and interfacing technology offers us the opportunity to meet the evolving needs of Openet's existing customers as well as the more complex needs of larger organisations not previously served by Openet," says Mullen.
Openet says its existing banking customer base will typically experience faster transactions due to the speed of the TNS network. In addition, clients can now access an extended range of services, such as a fully managed network and real time data management, without any change to existing systems.