Worldpay

Worldpay is one of the world's larger merchant acquirers, and since 9 January 2026 it has belonged to Global Payments, which paid $24.25bn in cash and stock to buy it from FIS and the private equity firm GTCR. The brand has changed hands repeatedly. It started in the UK in 1997 as an online multi-currency payments business, was folded into NatWest and then RBS, sold to Advent International and Bain Capital in 2010, listed in London in 2015, merged with the American processor Vantiv in 2018, and was bought by FIS the following year before being carved out again under GTCR in 2023. Head office is Cincinnati, with a substantial London base.

What merchants actually buy is card acquiring plus a gateway on top. Worldpay puts its coverage at more than 300 payment methods and 135+ currencies, with payouts in 40+, and says it offers domestic processing in 68 markets. Its developer documentation lists alternative methods including iDEAL, Bancontact, BLIK, Przelewy24, Multibanco, MyBank, Bizum, Satispay, BANCOMAT Pay, Swish, Trustly, Pix, Alipay, WeChat Pay, Konbini and paysafecard, next to Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, Diners/Discover and UnionPay. Domestic acquiring in Asia-Pacific runs across nine markets, Thailand being the most recent addition in July 2025. FraudSight handles risk scoring; dynamic currency conversion, account updater, network tokens, 3-D Secure and payouts are all available.

The pitch is aimed squarely at large merchants: Worldpay cites over 200 gaming operators, 120-plus airlines and eight of the ten biggest global retailers among its customers. Smaller UK and US businesses are sold terminal and ecommerce packages instead.

The main caveat is price transparency. Only UK small-business tariffs are published (1.50% on consumer Visa and Mastercard under the Simplicity plan, terminal hire of £15 to £22.50 a month, an 18-month minimum term). Everything else is quoted, and larger merchants are typically moved onto interchange-plus.