Neteller Acquires Skrill

On March 23, Optimal Payments Plc (the operator of Neteller) has published the official proposal of acquisition of Skrill Group from CVC Funds (operator of Skrill) and other owners for €1.1 billion (about $1.2 billion at the current rate). On March 24, the same proposal appeared on Skrill’s website.
The acquisition is still a subject to regulatory approval from the British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The transition of Skrill USA Inc. (the US branch of Skrill) should also be approved by the respective US authorities. The directors of Optimal Payments expect the whole process to be completed by the end of the third quarter of 2015.
The resulting group will be a huge player in the online payment systems industry with more than a hundred payment types for more than forty different currencies and operating in more than twenty languages. Both operators are already working in more than 200 countries. They will get a synergistic effect from this merger as they will benefit from more licenses and an increased mutual customer base. The president and CEO of Optimal Payments, Joel Leonoff commented on the merger:

The acquisition of Skrill will create a global tech champion in the fast growing digital payments space and we believe represents a transformational leap forward that greatly accelerates our strategic plan. The Optimal Payments management team is extremely excited about the future prospects for the Company.

Today, Optimal Payments Plc also announced that it is adding Bitcoin deposit option to its Neteller payment system, further increasing the appeal of their product.
To Forex traders, this means an improvement of payment handling if you are trading with one of the brokers accepting either Neteller or Skrill. Both payment systems will be working as usually, so you would not need to transfer everything to Neteller if you are Skrill’s customer. Eventually, you will be able to benefit from the advantages of both payment options even if the broker is currently only accepting one of them. For example, you will be able to benefit from Skrill’s debit card service in combination with Neteller’s ability to do Bitcoin deposit.
On the not-so-bright side, it would probably mean more identification and verification hassle for both systems’ customers as they will now have to comply with more regulations (both external and internal).

If you have any comments on this payment processor acquisition, please feel free to let us know via the commentary form below.