the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has approved the plan for Global Payments Inc. to acquire Worldpay. The decision of the first stage review announced on Monday confirmed that CMA "has approved this proposed acquisition" and determined that the merger transaction did not raise competition concerns requiring further investigation.

The deal was announced in April of this year, with the transaction structured as a three-party swap between Global Payments Inc., Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), and private equity firm GTCR. According to the plan, Global Payments Inc. based in Atlanta will acquire Worldpay for $24.25 billion (net of $22.7 billion after tax assets) and sell its issuing solutions division (TSYS) to FIS for $13.5 billion. Company documents show that after the transaction is completed, the combined merchant acquiring division will process over 94 billion transactions annually in 175 countries and regions, with a total transaction value of approximately $37 trillion.