April 21 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian fintech Paynetics filed for approval by the competition authority of its proposed acquisition of local digital wallet technology developer Phyre, the regulator said on Friday.
Third parties potentially concerned by the concentration and its effect on competition have seven days to submit comments on the transaction, the Commission on Protection of Competition (CPC) said in a notice on its website.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
The companies seeking approval do not consider the transaction as likely to have the potential to affect the local market, according to the notice.
An EU-licenced e-money institution, Sofia-based Paynetics last week announced that it was granted an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence from the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, which enables it to offer its full range of embedded finance and digital banking solutions across the UK and Europe. In 2020, shortly after securing funding from Bulgarian-American Credit Bank (BACB) and local venture capital fund New Vision 3, Paynetics acquired the corporate payout card portfolio operations of of the UK and Ireland business of insolvent German payments company Wirecard.
Phyre, which started out in 2015, has developed a digital wallet application which also allows the use of loyalty cards, the making of money transfers and the tracking of spending. Paynetics already provides payment services through the Phyre application.