Payment services company Cuscal will introduce non-mutual shareholders with material stakes as a result of its planned all scrip acquisition of Strategic Payments Services.Bendigo Bank and MasterCard will each take an approximate ten per cent stake of the final combined entity if the deal is approved, Cuscal said yesterday.Bendigo recorded a carrying value for its 47.5 per cent holding in SPS of A$10.5 million and will record "a small gain" on the sale, Andrew Watts, change executive at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, said yesterday. The deal has been reported to be worth $34 million.Cuscal managing director Craig Kennedy is confident Cuscal's proposed merger with SPS will be a good fit because the two companies have worked well together in the past.Kennedy said that, when Cuscal was establishing its payment platform, SPS provided connectivity in some areas where Cuscal had gaps."We have worked with them for a number of years. We know them well," Kennedy said.Kennedy also knows Bendigo and Adelaide Bank well. He said the bank was a Cuscal client and the deal opened up the prospect of providing the bank with services that Cuscal does not supply now.Cuscal's history is one of ownership by mutuals but Bendigo and Adelaide Bank will not be the first bank on its share register. Bank of Queensland became a shareholder when it acquired a mutual a number of years ago and it has held onto its Cuscal shares.Kennedy is confident that the merged entity (subject to Cuscal shareholder approval) will have the scale and capabilities to compete across the full payments spectrum.He said Cuscal offered a broader range of services than SPS but SPS had a deeper involvement in merchant acquiring.Both companies offer ATM services - Cuscal through its network of 7000 redi ATMs and SPS through a number of switching contracts.Other features of the merged group include digital and mobile infrastructure, connection to all cards and payment schemes, a real-time payment platform and a tokenisation and secure vault system."In Australia we are at a stage of entering significant innovation in payments," Bendigo's Watts said yesterday.The "merged entity will provide the best vehicle for the bank."