Mergers: European Commission clears acquisition of joint control of P27 Nordic Payment Platform and Bankgirot by six Nordic banks

The European Commission announced merger approval for the P27 Nordic Payments initiative to establish its pan-Nordic payments platform.

„This is a major milestone in creating one common payments infrastructure throughout the Nordics. The P27 platform will enable domestic and cross-border payments in real-time, in batches and in multiple currencies,” according to the press release.

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition of joint control over Bankgirocentralen BGC AB (‘Bankgirot’), through a newly-created joint venture, the P27 Nordic Payment Platform (‘P27 NPP’), both of Sweden, by six Nordic banks.

The six banks are Danske Bank A/S of Denmark, Svenska Handelsbanken AB, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB, and Swedbank AB, all three of Sweden, and Nordea Bank Abp and OP Corporate Bank plc, both of Finland (together, the ‘parent companies’).

The merger approval from the EU Commission is crucial for P27 in many ways. It enables P27 to start preparing for onboarding customers in Denmark, Finland and Sweden. It enables P27 to complete the acquisition of Bankgirot in Sweden and proceed with the transformation of the Swedish payments infrastructure together with Bankgirot.

The merger approval also means that P27 can proceed with the preparations for pan-Nordic payments services and products, such as the Nordic bill payments service (one pan-nordic alternative to the current request to pay and direct debit solutions in the Nordics).

The transaction gives rise to horizontal overlaps and vertical links between the activities of the companies in the Nordic markets. As regards horizontal overlaps between Bankgirot and P27 NPP, the Commission found that the number of providers available for the customers in the relevant markets will not be reduced.

As regards the vertical links, the Commission found that the parties will have no ability or incentive to foreclose competitors, in light of the applicable regulatory requirements and as it could undermine the success of P27 NPP.  Therefore, the Commission concluded that the transaction would raise no competition concerns. The transaction was examined under the normal merger review.

Lars Sjögren, CEO of P27, comments:

“This is a major milestone for P27. Over the past three years, we have been building a platform that will transform the payments infrastructures in the Nordics. Our platform will enable domestic and cross-border payments in real-time, in batches and in multiple currencies throughout the Nordic region.”

Martin Andersson, Chairman of the P27 board, comments:

“The EU Commission’s merger approval means that we are now a major step closer to realising our vision. We are excited to start preparing for on-boarding clients in Denmark, Finland and Sweden, and also to proceed and complete the acquisition of Bankgirot in Sweden.”

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Bankgirot is the incumbent provider of Layer 1 services (i.e. clearing services) and Layer 2 services (i.e. invoice payment solutions) in Sweden. P27 NPP is a greenfield joint venture for the provision of cross-border Layer 1 and Layer 2 services in Nordic countries.

P27 is a joint payments project between six of the largest banks in the Nordics: Danske Bank, Handelsbanken, Nordea, OP Financial Group, SEB and Swedbank. The project started in late 2018 and has been run as a jointly owned company by the founding banks since 2019 in order to design and plan the pan-Nordic payments platform.

The goal is to create the world’s first digital platform that will allow businesses and consumers to make domestic and cross-border payments in real-time, in batches and in multiple currencies to one another. The platform is intended to serve the 27 million people living in the Nordic region, which is where name P27 comes from.