SOCIETÀ PER I SERVIZI BANCARI – SSB/SOCIETÀ INTERBANCARIA PER L’AUTOMAZIONE – CEDBORSA
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
BANKING SYSTEM: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY LAUNCHES INQUIRY INTO SIA-SSB MERGER
POSSIBLE ANTI-COMPETITIVE EFFECTS ON INTERBANK CLEARING AND CARD PAYMENT SERVICES
The Italian Competition Authority, at its meeting on 21 February 2007, decided to launch an inquiry into the takeover of SIA (Società Interbancaria per l’Automazione – Cedborsa S.p.A.) by SSB (Società per i Servizi Bancari) and any possible anti-competitive effects of that move.
In the Authority’s view, this merger will result in the creation of an entity, controlled by five major national banks, which will be completely integrated in the provision of services to the banking and finance world: SSB is in fact the country’s leading provider of clearing services for interbank payments and of processing for card payments, while SIA has absolute dominion in the provision of physical and logical connectivity for banks and brokers, has an exclusive arrangement to manage the National Interbank Network and a number of system data bases, and occupies an important position in the supply of technology platforms to the financial markets.
In retail clearing services and card payment processing in particular, the Authority believes SSB could further strengthen its market leadership through integration with SIA which has a dominant position in the supply of physical and logical networks. In the market for logical network services for applications regulated by the SITRAD convention (Interbank Data Transmission Network), SIA effectively has a monopoly since the only company which has obtained authorization to offer logical network services within SITRAD is not yet operational. The competitive advantage deriving from the merger of SSB and SIA could lead the new entity to formulate offerings of a kind that would risk excluding present and potential competitors from the markets in question.
This proceeding must be completed within the next 45 days.
Rome, 23 February 2007