First Financial Bancorp in Hamilton, Ohio, announced Thursday that it has sold its merchant payment processing portfolio to Metavante Corp., its technology provider.
The $3.3 billion-asset banking company said it expects to report a fourth-quarter pretax gain of $5.5 million after expenses.
Metavante, which is to be spun off this quarter by the Milwaukee banking company Marshall & Ilsley Corp., gained 1,743 merchant accounts in the portfolio, First Financial said. The two companies are to market the service jointly.
Claude E. Davis, the president and chief executive officer of First Financial, said both his bank and its clients would win from the sale. "Existing and future First Financial merchant clients will receive an enhanced processing platform from Metavante, [and] First Financial will receive incentives to further grow the merchant portfolio and a substantial gain from its sale," he said in a press release.
