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The major U.S. payments processor Shift4 Payments Inc. said early Monday it will work with Fabrick S.p.a. to offer the Milan-based company’s embedded-finance and payments-orchestration services to merchants in Europe. Terms of the deal were not immediately available.
For Fabrick, the deal means the 6-year-old company can rely on Shift4’s principal-member license in the European Union to market payment acceptance to merchants. The deal also widens Shift4’s potential coverage in Europe, coming on the heels of the Allentown, Pa.-based processor’s acquisition in October of Finaro, a specialist in e-commerce payments. Shift4 complemented that deal with its move in June to acquire a majority stake in Vectron Systems AG, a German processor for card-present transactions.
“This partnership [with Fabrick] is a testament to our commitment to leveling the payment processing playing field, and we look forward to working with Fabrick to deliver unparalleled payment services to even more European merchants,” said Nick Tubb, Shift4’s senior vice president for commercial, in a statement.
Figures indicating the extent of Shift4’s position in merchant acquiring in Europe were not immediately available. A Shift4 spokesman did not immediately return a call from Digital Transactions News about the Fabrick deal.
Observers see the arrangement with Fabrick widening Shift4’s scope in Europe beyond Finaro’s merchant base, particularly with the latest deal’s card-present focus. “This is an expansion for Shift4 in Europe, outside the channels Finaro served” notes Eric Grover, principal at payments advisory Intrepid Ventures. He adds the Shift4 example is also demonstrating an imperative for other U.S processors. “Any big U.S. payments processor has got to be expanding outside the United States.”
Still, he cautions that, while “Europe is probably the most comfortable [foreign market] for U.S processors,” the market “is already pretty developed.”
In June, Shift4 announced it would work with Stockholm-based OneMoneyWay, a digital-payments platform, to offer a service in Europe combining payments and other business support.
