WorldPay payments firm in $43bn sale to US rival

A UK payment processing firm that used to be owned by Royal Bank of Scotland has been sold in a deal worth $43bn (£32bn).

WorldPay has been bought by Florida-based Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) for $35bn in cash and shares, plus WorldPay’s debt.

FIS provides electronic payments services and also software for the finance industry.

WorldPay was sold by RBS as a condition of the bank’s financial crisis bailout.

The stock market values RBS at £32bn – roughly the size of the deal to buy WorldPay.

Last October, BT poached WorldPay’s co-head Philip Jansen to replace Gavin Patterson as chief executive of the telecoms group.

Financial software firm FIS said buying WorldPay would help it sell more services to banks and other financial firms.

FIS chief executive Gary Norcross said “scale matters in our rapidly changing industry”.

The rise of financial technology firms, known as fintech, has seen technology firms taking on banks in a race for control of the digital payments market.

“The need to invest, to continue to modernise both the technology and application layers, and continue to innovate so our customers can continue to be disrupters, will be important for us,” FIS president and chief executive Gary Norcross told investors in a call on Monday.