Car companies really can do it all, if Volkswagen’s recent sale of its bespoke car payments platform is anything to go by. The German automaker’s payments platform was set up in 2017 and focuses on allowing customers to buy and lease cars, pay for parking tickets, and fill in payments for EV charging – basically taking care of all your car-related transactions.
Well, it definitely caught the eye of JP Morgan’s (JPM) wholesale payments division who’s planning to acquire a 75% stake in the platform. With the deal expected to close by the end of H1 2022, the bank is putting everything up on the table, including a potential rebranding of the service alongside an expansion to features that aren’t just car-related. Given that Volkswagen posted $26.8b in revenues for its financial services division in H1 2021 (18% up from last year), the payments platform must have done well enough for an acquisition offer to come in.
Why it matters
Volkswagen’s shares were down by 3% yesterday, however mostly due to broader unease in the European markets over euro zone inflation. The acquisition is also one in a series of FinTech purchases made by JP Morgan this year in a bid to build their digital footprint – it’s made 30 acquisitions so far into 2021 already.
