Euronet to buy Greek bank’s merchant acquiring business | PaymentsSource

• Key insights: Euronet is buying CrediaBank’s merchant acquiring unit, Lloyds is set to shutter its invoice financing business and an industry group is calling for increased BNPL regulation. 
• What’s at stake: Greek banks have been offloading their merchant acquiring business over the last few years, according to William Blair.  
• Forward look: The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026. 

Greece-based CrediaBank is selling its merchant acquiring business to Euronet Worldwide for an undisclosed amount amid a broader partnership, the bank said. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026. 

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Under the terms of the deal, CrediaBank will transfer its merchant acquiring business to Euronet Merchant Services Payment Institution, which operates in Greece as epay. Euronet will also manage and operate the bank’s ATM network, give the bank’s customers free access to the company’s network of 2,500 ATMs in the country, and provide card management and transaction processing services for debit, credit and prepaid cards. 

The two companies will also establish a sales and distribution partnership and work together to develop payments and digital-wallet services for an initial three-year period. 

CrediaBank, formerly known as Attica Bank, was founded in 1924 and is the fifth-largest bank in Greece with 6.7 billion euro of deposits, according to a William Blair research note. The bank has 24,000 point-of-sale terminals at 20,000 merchants and a network of 63 non-branch ATMs. 

Greek banks have been divesting merchant acquiring businesses in recent years, according to William Blair. In 2022, Euronet acquired Piraeus Bank’s merchant acquiring business for 300 million euros ($351.7 million), Worldline acquired an 80% stake in Eurobank’s for 256 million euros ($300.2 million), and Nexi acquired a 51% stake in Alpha Bank’s for 157 million euros ($184.1). The year prior, Evo Payments acquired a 51% stake in the National Bank of Greece’s merchant acquiring business for $180 million. 

Similarly, in the U.K. this year, Barclays and Brookfield Asset Management entered into a long-term partnership designed to transform the bank’s merchant acquiring business into a standalone company. 

Lloyds Bank to shutter its invoice financing business

Lloyds Banking Group is reportedly shutting down its invoice factoring business, according to the Financial Times. 

A representative from Lloyds declined to comment. 

Factoring is where a business sells its unpaid invoices at a discount to a third party, called a factor, to avoid elongated payment terms and get cash quickly. The factoring company then collects the payment on that account when the payment comes due. 

The decision to pullback from factoring comes as demand for the product has been dwindling. In 2025, Lloyds had about 1,400 small business customers, or 0.1% of its nearly one million small business banking customers, who had an ongoing factoring relationship with the bank. About 60% of those customers had migrated to Lloyds’ in-house invoice discounting product, and the rest found an alternative provider or solution. 

The shutdown also comes as more fintechs are seeking to provide small businesses with consumer-style financing, often billed as business-to-business buy now, pay later or even earned revenue access. Lloyds has been taking steps to compete with digital wallets and other fintech offerings and acquired digital-wallet provider Curve in November. 

Visa, Mastercard log increases in holiday spending

Consumers showed up at the checkout lines this holiday season, despite some concerns that uncertainty surrounding tariffs and inflation would cool their penchant for spending. 

In the U.S., shoppers turned out in-store and online, according to Visa. About 73% of holiday payment volume was in physical stores, and the remaining 27% were online. Online retail spending rose nearly 8%. 

Globally, Australia saw a 5% increase in total seasonal spending from a year ago, Canada posted a 4.4% rise, spending in South Africa grew just shy of 8%, and spending increased 3.6% in the U.K.. 

“This season also marked a turning point, with artificial intelligence shaping how people discover products, compare prices, and interact with offers,” said Wayne Best, Visa’s chief economist. “This led to a more informed, more intentional consumer, ensuring they could stretch their discretionary spending.”

Mastercard logged similar results. Excluding automobile sales, U.S. retail sales increased 3.9% year over year from Nov. 1 through Dec. 21, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse. E-commerce sales increased 7.4% and in-store sales grew 2.9%. 

Industry group calls for increased BNPL regulation

The Center for Responsible Lending, a non-profit consumer advocacy group and outspoken critic of earned wage access, is calling for increased regulation on the buy now, pay later industry as demand for the finance product continues to gain traction. 

The CRL wants regulators to require BNPL lenders to verify a consumer’s ability to repay, a key credit underwriting guideline in other consumer lending markets. BNPL providers do not pull consumer’s credit history and do not share borrowing information with the credit bureaus, making it easy for consumers to stack multiple BNPL loans with different BNPL lenders. 

“An [ability to repay] evaluation helps consumers better understand how taking on additional credit (no matter how convenient) affects their overall financial picture,” said Nadine Chabrier, Center for Responsible Lending’s senior policy and litigation counsel, in a LinkedIn post. “At the same time, ATR assessments help prevent lenders from issuing unaffordable credit that can pose risks not only to individuals, but potentially to the stability of lending institutions themselves.” 

CRL said ability-to-repay assessments could take multiple forms, including a review of consumer’s credit report, an analysis of cash from data or algorithmic tools that consider a combination of both. 

BNPL loans that are repaid in four or less installments sit in a regulatory grey area because they are not subject to the Truth in Lending Act. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the leadership of former Director Rohit Chopra attempted to classify those loans as credit cards in 2024 under an interpretive rule, but that stance was reversed earlier this year when the Trump administration took control of the bureau. 

State regulators have since stepped in, including the New York Department of Financial Services. And earlier this month, seven state attorneys general requested additional information from BNPL lenders. 

SEC charges three crypto platforms for scams on social media

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged three crypto trading platforms and four investment clubs for allegedly defrauding retail investors out of more than $14 million through elaborate investment schemes on social media. 

Crypto platforms Morocoin Tech, Merge Blockchain Technology and Cirkor were named in the complaint. Investment clubs AI Wealth, Lane Wealth, AI Investment Education Foundation and Zenith Asset Tech Foundation were also named in the complaint. 

According to the complaint’s allegations, the investment clubs used WhatsApp and other ads on social media in 2024 to solicit investors to join the clubs. Once the retail investors joined, the clubs gained investor confidence with “supposedly AI-generated investment tips, before luring investors to open and fund accounts on purported crypto asset-trading platforms” that falsely claimed to hold government licenses, according to an SEC press release. From there, investors would execute trades, but  no trades took place. 

“This matter highlights an all-too-common form of investment scam that is being used to target U.S. retail investors with devastating consequences,” said Laura D’Allaird, chief of the SEC’s Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit, in a statement. “Our complaint alleges a multi-step fraud that attracted victims with ads on social media, built victims’ trust in group chats where fraudsters posed as financial professionals and promised profits from AI-generated investment tips, then convinced victims to put their money into fake crypto asset trading platforms where it was misappropriated. 

“Fraud is fraud, and we will vigorously pursue securities fraud that harms retail investors,” D’Allaird said.