经济学人财经||FIS以430亿美元收购Worldpay的全部股权及债务，成为电子支付界最大规模交易
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导读
感谢思维导图作者
Alan，男，金融工程硕士，经济学人粉丝
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听力|精读|翻译|词组
Terminal velocity
终端速度
英文部分选自经济学人Finance and economics版块
Terminal velocity
终端速度
A mega-merger intensifies the scramble to build global payment systems
一次强强合并加剧了建立全球支付网络的竞争
YOUR HOME is about to become a department store. Of the 27% of American consumers who own voice-activated speakers, more than a quarter already use them to shop. You may soon start ordering groceries via a panel on your fridge or buying accessories through an interactive mirror in the bedroom. Social-media outlets are also after your money: before long, that red coat you liked on a friend’s Instagram page will be just a click away.
在不久的将来，我们的家就是一个百货商店。美国27%的消费者拥有语音识别设备，超过四分之一都会用它们来购物。不久之后，你或许可以操控具有语音识别功能的冰箱面板来订购商品，也可以在卧室带有人机交互功能的镜子上购买耳环项链等配饰。而社交媒体运营商们也会盯紧你的钱包：也许不久之后，你在朋友Ins主页上点赞的红外套只需轻轻一点就能买到手。
The continuing boom in e-commerce—which is still growing at a breakneck 18% a year—is forcing speedy change on a once-staid sector: the invisible pipework that powers payments. On March 18th FIS, an American company which provides information technology to around 14,000 banks, agreed to buy Worldpay, a payments plumber, for $43bn including debt—the largest deal ever in the payments industry. It marks a sharp escalation in the battle for a market that BCG, a consulting firm, expects almost to double in size, to $2.4trn, between 2017 and 2027.
Payment technology is already pretty nifty. When a shopper swipes her credit card at a till, the company providing terminals to the shop (the “merchant acquirer”) asks the lender that issued the card (the “issuer”) to confirm that she has enough funds. That electronic query reaches the lender—whether around the corner or across the world—in milliseconds. If the answer is “yes”, the shop has a guarantee it will eventually receive the money, and the shopper can take the goods.
The acquirer usually requests funds from card issuers only at the end of the day, after the shop submits its full list of transactions. Payment networks, such as Visa or Mastercard, then move the money, which may take days to reach retailers’ accounts. They also set the complex rules by which the issuers and acquirers they licence must abide. For example, acquirers provide insurance: they repay customers who, say, have bought tickets from an airline that goes bust before they fly. They also store the granular data needed to withhold deposits or execute partial refunds.
This system was designed for a brick-and-mortar world. But e-commerce has spawned new payment methods, such as digital wallets, and is changing constantly. Websites and apps can upgrade their software daily; acquirers might do so every quarter or two, says Chris Jones of PSE, a consultancy. Companies dubbed “gateways” now act as multi-socket adapters, connecting acquirers to morphing e-commerce firms. “Digital storefronts” like Shopify, a software company, add another layer: they cater to small vendors, enabling them to create a sleek website connected to a gateway in minutes.
Banks have been in retreat from this fast-evolving world. “They are like turkeys waiting for Christmas,” says Mark O’Keefe of Optima, a consultancy. Card issuers outsource most of their processing to technology providers like FIS. Merchant acquiring used to be part of banks’ domain, but it was never part of their core business. In the past decade or so many have spun them off. The financial crisis accelerated this. In 2010 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) sold Worldpay to Bain Capital and Advent International, two buy-out firms, for £2bn ($2.7bn) as a condition of the lender’s bail-out by the British taxpayer.
RBS may now feel a tinge of regret. After a £9.3bn merger with Vantiv, an American peer, last year, Worldpay is the world’s largest acquirer. It says it processed over 40bn transactions in 2018. Other non-banks, such as Global Payments, have also become giants (see chart). This is partly due to organic growth. Acquiring is more profitable than other processing jobs, which have become commoditised. It is also cheaper and faster to scale on the web: installing card terminals in-store requires labour and local presence. It helps that the volume of transactions, on which acquirers levy a fee, is rocketing, propelled by voracious spending in emerging economies.
Mergers, often orchestrated by private-equity firms, have consolidated parts of the industry. Acquirers have bought gateways; big technology providers have snapped up smaller software firms. But vertical takeovers by broad technology providers of payments specialists, like FIS’s of Worldpay, are new. The merger comes just two months after Fiserv, FIS’s main competitor, agreed to buy First Data, a rival of Worldpay, in a $22bn deal. Both mark the start of new phase of an M&A chess game. Pawns have been captured, but most big pieces still roam free. Since these play very diverse roles, dozens of possible combinations make strategic sense, says Lisa Ellis of MoffettNathanson, a research firm.
Vertical mergers will allow companies to cut costs, gain pricing power and cross-sell products—often to banks, their former owners. This will give them the firepower to go for the real target: establishing a truly global acquiring network. Multinationals such as Hilton or ikea would love the simplicity of signing one single contract covering their payment needs worldwide. The Worldpay deal is a step in that direction. The firm, which focuses on Europe and America, should benefit from FIS’s existing relationships in emerging markets.
Seemingly innocuous deals could precipitate the scramble. On March 11th PayPal, a digital-wallet pioneer now worth $119bn, announced a $750m investment in MercadoLibre, a Latin American e-commerce platform. Worldpay, which has ambitions in the region, was surely watching: PayPal uses First Data as its acquirer. FIS is already thinking about the next round. “It won’t surprise us that other companies come together,” says John Crawford of fis. “We don’t expect it to be our last deal either.”
翻译组：
Leon, 男，金融专业研究生，经济学人铁粉
Lucia ，女，翻译学硕士三年制，经济学人粉丝
Yoga，体制内搬砖，爱游泳，爱潜水，爱经济学人
Fiona，教育从业人员，爱爬山爱口红，经济学人粉丝
校核组：
Mayof，女，大三, catti三级备考中, 比较文学考研备考中
Alex，男，工科研究生，文学与科学爱好者，经济学人忠实读者
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观点|评论|思考
本期评论员
Jessie Lulu, 金融从业者，爱阳光，爱细雨，爱经济学人
“FIS欲以430亿美元收购WorldPay，刷新支付行业并购纪录”—这是个并购重组如火种般滋生蔓延的年代，但这样的消息仍可以作为支付圈里有代表性的新闻。为什么支付领域成为Fintech领域大佬们争相抢占的高地，除了改变世界实现自我价值的终极梦想外，自然一切还是需要从钱谈起。
支付业务的产业链里牵涉到几个基本的组成方，以传统业务为例，包括：持卡人、签约商户、发卡行（就是持卡人在哪家银行开户的）、收单机构（日终提供资金盘点结算）、中间清算机构（比如银联，为跨行交易提供网络支持等）。
每一笔支付业务，环节参与人都要从签约商户这里薅走一片羊毛，当然羊毛最终出在持卡人身上（商户势必会将这部分成本转嫁给消费者）。手续费收取百分比根据不同的商户类别码（MCC）有所差异，比如餐饮住宿类标准最早为消费金额的1.25%（想想自己吃个饭又要交税又要出手续费小老百姓也是不易），这部分费用按照721分成，即发卡行70%，收单行20%，银联10%（后面可能资本家良心鹊起，2016年9月6日，费率水平有所下调，网络服务费由银联等分别向收单、发卡机构计收。）呐，总的来说，是个边际成本极小，几乎一本万利的买卖。
原先这也就是银行在主导玩的。但是从Worldpay的权属也可以看到历史和时代的变迁。Worldpay最早是苏格兰皇家银行（RBS）的一个部门；2010年贝恩资本联合安宏国际通过杠杆以20亿英镑收购WorldPay；2017年Vantiv又以93亿英镑收购Worldpay（当时也是作为全球支付业首个百亿美元级并购项目）；而今，Worldpay的身价已达430亿美元。是吧，RBS大概哭晕在厕所，是“乱花渐欲迷人眼”看不到支付行业在这几年中的突破性变革；而作为“等待圣诞节降临的火鸡”，眼看着各类非银机构闯入支付和收单跑马圈地，却也凸显着尾大不掉的尴尬处境。所以，打江山容易守江山难。银行何以节节败退？
1. 态度问题。收单业务收入也是传统银行业重要的中间业务收入，但比起坐享其成的存贷利差，那确实只是九牛一毛，受到的重视程度那可能也就是嫡出、庶出的区别；
2. 眼光问题。收单需要投入大量的人力物力财力去铺设渠道，银行倾向于将此类业务进行外包，技术跟进和革新无法跟互联网企业匹敌，银行的战略眼光显然不够长远；
3. 思维问题。银行只是提供了这一种收单服务，但非银支付机构却用着互联网思维来运营，套用一个大佬的话，“很多公司不仅把Worldpay当做支付合作伙伴，更多是长期战略伙伴。Worldpay的使命是成为商户最好的合作伙伴和顾问，为他们提供洞察和见解。”此处，你也可以把Worldpay替换为支付宝，或者微信。
所以，居安不思危，银行失去的不仅是业务收入，更重要的是天然的获客场景，消费资金的入口和沉淀，以及由此形成的大数据网络。而这样的生态圈，其实反过来又是哺育着银行客户量、存款、贷款等业务的生存根基。
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