The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that it has begun an investigation into Global Payments’ intended acquisition of Worldpay.
In a notice released on 16 September 2025, the CMA mentioned that the merger notice submitted by Global Payments and Worldpay meets the requirements of the Enterprise Act 2002. The statutory review period is set to start on 17 September 2025, and the CMA is required to decide by 11 November if the deal will be cleared or referred for a more detailed Phase 2 probe.
Why does the CMA investigate the transaction?
The current announcement comes after, in July 2025, the CMA issued only a preliminary invitation to comment as it looked into whether the transaction between Global Payments and Worldpay might negatively impact competition in the UK payment sector. Back then, the authority underlined that it had not yet rolled out a formal investigation.
This followed Global Payments’ announcement regarding its decision to acquire Worldpay from Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) and private equity company GTCR in April 2025. The net purchase price was approximately USD 22.7 billion, offering the transaction a total value of USD 24.25 billion. The transaction also saw Global Payments entering a USD 13.5 billion deal to divest its Issuer Solutions business to FIS, a US-based financial products and services company.
Now, the CMA has decided to progress with a formal inquiry, in turn signalling closer examination of the deal between two participants in global payments. If the transaction finalises, Worldpay would merge its solid position in online and enterprise payments with Global Payments’ focus on SMEs. By working together, the two companies would manage payments for over six million clients and process nearly 94 billion transactions annually in over 175 countries. From the CMA’s point of view, this could negatively affect competition in the market. Under the Enterprise Act 2002, the CMA is allowed to mitigate any anti-competitive practices it deems fall under its scope, and if this acquisition between Global Payments and Worldpay breaks this legislation.
