BRITAIN'S biggest bank, HSBC, plans to increase its share of the £1billion market for processing payments on both credit cards and debit cards through a tie-up with US group Global Payments.

They are forging a joint venture to take over the bank’s payment processing operations in the UK. HSBC’s payment processing operations currently serves some 135,000 stores and businesses.

But according to reports, the two, who have a partnership in Asia, will form HSBC Merchant Services, to be 51% owned by the Americans and 49% by HSBC. Global will pay HSBC £218million for the stake.

HSBC is the third-largest provider of such services, others include Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland, with a 15% market share. The bank has however, given no target for the new venture but Alan Keir, HSBC group general manager of commercial banking, said: “We don’t like coming third.”

HSBC’s 400 existing card processing staff will become employees of Global Payments. At the same time, the bank has announced that there would be no redundancies.

Global Payments chairman Paul Garcia while commenting specifically on the joint venture with HSBC said that the move would give a bridgehead in Europe ahead of the removal of cross-border restrictions.