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First Data Corp. has completed the termination of its former joint venture, Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, with JPMorgan Chase & Co. Under the dissolution, announced earlier this year (CardLine, 5/27), Greenwood Village, Colo.-based First Data has integrated 49% of Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC's former assets, including a portion of its staff, into First Data's established merchant acquiring business. Those assets also include the ISO and Agent Bank division of the former joint venture. New York-based JPMorgan Chase has retained 51% of Chase Paymentech Solution's assets, including most of its employees, its Canadian and European operations and its Dallas headquarters. First Data claims to provide processing and acquiring services for more than 5.4 million merchant locations around the world and to have processed $1.5 trillion worth of transaction volume for U.S. merchants in 2007. "It is unclear whether Chase Paymentech is going to benefit from a portion of the money that JPMorgan Chase will receive from the government," writes Adil Moussa, group analyst at Aite Group LLC. "If they do, they would be able to continue their development as planned. First Data, on the other hand, will continue to go after bank relationships. The current economic crisis will offer the two processing giants a chance to pick up new merchants as some ISOs and their acquirers experience a revenue squeeze and contemplate getting rid of their merchant portfolio[s]."
