Frankfurt-based bank Commerzbank and US fintech company Global Payments this month announced a joint venture (JV) enabling them to offer digital payment facilities to small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers in Germany. The JV is aimed at exploiting projected growth in banking digitalisation in the country.
Known as Commerz Globalpay, the JV is expected to launch before the end of June this year. It aims to help SME merchants “run and grow their businesses more efficiently” by offering new digital payment acceptance tools, including the ability for merchants to accept mobile payments without requiring a separate card reader to complete a transaction.
Facilities set to be provided to SMEs by the JV include modern card terminals, e-commerce/mobile payment solutions and point-of-sale solutions, “integrated to deliver seamless omnichannel experiences to consumers,” according to Nick Corrigan, president of Atlanta-based Global Payments Europe. “These form factors enable a business to expand and grow both physically and digitally,” he adds.
Thomas Schaufler, member of the board of managing directors for private and small business customers at Commerzbank, says: “Through the joint venture, Commerzbank will give its customers access to a broader range of payment products and a variety of value-added services. At the interface between customer and bank, there is an increasing shift from physical to digital customer contact via online banking, app or video consultation.
“Commerzbank is responding to this development and adapting its offering in line with customer expectations,” he adds.
Commerz Globalpay has not yet disclosed details of the costs to SME clients of making use of this new digital payments functionality, simply saying that details of pricing will be published when the JV launches in the first half of this year. The fintech is already established in Europe, partnering with CaixaBank in Spain and Erste Group Bank in Austria.
Compared to other European markets, Germany lags behind in adopting digital payment methods. Mr Corrigan says the JV will capitalise on increasing and “significant” digitalisation of payment technology that he says is expected to occur in Germany over the next five years. “We intend to be part of this story, giving small and medium-sized businesses the ability to choose from a vast portfolio of value-added services and new products and capabilities, providing their consumers the convenience of being able to transact how, when and where they want,” he says.
He adds that the JV will provide merchants with access to a variety of services including cloud-based point-of-sale software, customer loyalty programmes and an analytics and customer engagement platform.
“It will provide SMEs with a comprehensive suite of innovative omnichannel solutions, leading software products and additional capabilities, along with an unmatched technology platform to run and grow their business more effectively and efficiently,” says Mr Corrigan.
Commerz Globalpay also promises to provide digital currency conversion and a receipt-archiving function, which will make printed merchant copies of receipts obsolete, saving the data online instead, he explains.
According to a report by business information provider GlobalData, the German cards and payments market size was valued at $478bn in 2022. “This is an opportunity to capitalise on the digitalisation of payment technologies in the German market, which is expected to grow significantly over the next five years,” says Mr Corrigan.
The collaboration with Commerzbank provides Global Payments with diverse distribution channels to reach a broader customer base and capture new market share with the latter’s distinctive capabilities, he says. “Commerzbank is a partner to around 26,000 corporate clients and almost 11 million private and small-business customers in Germany. The JV also leverages our EVO acquisition, while significantly expanding our presence, scale and distribution in the attractive German market,” he adds.
Additional services to be provided by Commerz Globalpay include online data management platform GP Merchant Portal, aimed at helping merchants to make “informed business decisions”, according to Global Payments.
Global Payments, through the JV, will enable merchants to access a range of Google products through a single access point, called the Run & Grow My Business platform. These include Google Ads, Google Business Profile, Google Workspace and analytics. The tech providers announced a strategic partnership with Google to develop digital merchant customer services worldwide, two years ago.
This partnership with Commerzbank leverages Global Payments’ recent acquisition of EVO payments last year, when it expanded its presence in Poland, Greece and Chile.
