ANZ has commenced its merchant acquiring joint venture with French payments company Worldline, which the bank hopes will give its business customers access to “best in class” payment technology.

The joint venture, ANZ Worldline Payment Solutions, is 51 per cent owned by Worldline and 49 per cent by ANZ. ANZ’s merchant acquiring business has been sold into the JV.

Worldline claims to be the biggest player in the European payments services market and number four worldwide, operating in 50 countries and working with 1200 banks and financial institutions.

When it announced the deal last December, ANZ said it would make an after-tax gain of around A$200 million on the sale, adding around 8 basis points to level 2 group common equity tier 1 capital.

The JV is for an initial term of 10 years. ANZ has agreed to refer all new merchant customers to the JV and the JV will refer all new merchant customers to ANZ for other banking services.

Worldline said in a statement that the shift from cash to card payments in Australia represents an attractive opportunity.

In a report published last year, Navigating Digital Payments, the company argues digital payments should be preferred over cash because digital is environmentally friendlier. One of its goals is to develop “green payments”.

It is targeting double-digit growth for the JV, which it expects to deliver “through cross and up-sell opportunities based on innovative solutions such as digital onboarding, alternative payment methods, fraud detection and omnichannel capabilities.”