CrediaBank, the Greek bank that is confirmed to acquire the 70.03% of HSBC Malta by Q1 of 2027 subject to all required regulatory approvals, announced on December 30, 2025, that it has entered into a strategic partnership agreement with Euronet Worldwide Inc.
Euronet is a global leader in payments processing, merchant acquiring, ATM management, card issuing, and cross-border transactions with long-standing proven expertise in scalable, secure, and regulator-ready payment platforms in Greece since since 1997 and in Malta since 2016.
The agreement defines that Euronet will acquire CrediaBank’s merchant acquiring business and ATM network, and in addition, Euronet will provide financial services to the Bank, while the companies plan to launch an account-to-account consumer digital wallet.
Specific agreement points
- The agreement will merge CrediaBank’s merchant portfolio with Euronet’s existing merchant acquiring business in Greece, further strengthening Euronet’s leading position in merchant acquiring services in the country. The combined operations are expected to process more than $22B annually and serve more than 240,000 merchants. The business serves a broad merchant base across multiple sectors and represents a core payments acceptance platform. In addition, CrediaBank and Euronet enter into a long-term strategic partnership aiming to further expand the merchant customer-base and provide advanced payment solutions to merchants. The perimeter comprises approximately 25,000 merchants, supported by more than 30,000 POS terminals, with approximately €1 billion value of transactions (FY 2024).
- By combining Euronet’s industry-leading payments technology and international experience with CrediaBank’s country-wide branch network, the partnership will enhance service quality, expand product offerings, ensure uninterrupted nationwide customer service and deliver additional digital services to the Bank’s customers.
- The agreement also provides Euronet a long-term strategic partnership with the bank for exclusive sales distribution through the Bank’s branch network and the development of new, incremental value-added services.
- The transaction accelerates Euronet’s strategic goal of providing multiple customer touchpoints that span the digital and physical world of payments. Designed for the next generation of digital financial services across the globe, the strategy is anchored by Ren, Euronet’s modern and scalable payments platform, and was recently enhanced through the acquisition of the CoreCard revolving credit platform.
- For CrediaBank, the payments agreement represents a strategic lever for long-term value creation. By leveraging Euronet’s global payments infrastructure and scalable technology platforms, CrediaBank enhances its ability to innovate efficiently, expand its payments capabilities and accelerate time-to-market. The partnership strengthens operational resilience and positions the bank to capture sustainable growth opportunities in an increasingly digital and interconnected payments landscape.
- As part of the agreement, Euronet and CrediaBank are partnering to deliver a modern digital wallet built on Euronet’s wallet platform and payment infrastructure. The wallet will integrate IRIS, the national instant payment system for account-to-account transactions, and combine it with Euronet’s loyalty and other value-added services, thus aligning with the accelerating European shift toward cardless payment models. Under this partnership, the Bank and Euronet will cooperate to deliver a fully functional digital payments offering integrated with the broader payments’ ecosystem. The digital wallet partnership is designed to generate long-term commercial upside for the Bank while minimising upfront investment and execution risk. In cooperation with Euronet, the Bank will participate in a fully integrated digital payments offering that enhances customer engagement, transaction volumes and monetisation opportunities, including the ability to market loyalty programs, promotions and value-added services within the wallet. The detailed revenue model and investment parameters will be finalized within the broader partnership framework, allowing the Bank to optimize economics while leveraging Euronet’s technology and operational capabilities. While supporting each company’s broader digital and growth strategy, the agreement brings together Euronet’s technology and payments expertise with CrediaBank’s banking capabilities, creating mutual commercial benefits through expanded customer reach, increased transaction volumes and the development of new digital use cases.
- Under the agreement, Euronet will also provide CrediaBank with issuing services for credit, debit and prepaid cards. This structure allows the Bank to retain customer ownership and commercial control while benefiting from scalable and efficient processing capabilities. The SLA covers card issuance and personalization, transaction processing, lifecycle management and back-office support. The Bank’s cards’ portfolio comprises approximately 265,000 cards, of which c.235,000 debit cards and c.30,000 credit cards (as of June 2025).
- In parallel, Euronet will assume the management and operation of the Bank’s ATM network and, together with the existing ATM participation agreement, CrediaBank ensures uninterrupted nationwide customer service through a network of more than 2,500 ATMs, offering the highest and widest ATM coverage compared to any other bank in Greece even in remote places. The sale perimeter covers a nationally distributed ATM network, which includes 141 ATMs in total (80 on-site ATMs and 61 off-site ATMs), with approximately €1 million processed transactions and €300mn volume of cash withdrawals from January until August 2025.
- These agreements will also enable CrediaBank to extend to its customers Euronet’s established and proven proprietary technology products, including, among others, the provision of cash, card-based acquiring, alternative payment acquiring, online acquiring and tokenized payments.
How this collaboration can benefit the Maltese market
At this stage, the agreement between Euronet and CrediaBank does not include the Maltese market. Nonetheless, having already established a strategic partnership with a proven global player with strong historical presence in Malta, it is safe to assume that it may not be unlikely to consider extending this partnership beyond the remits of Greece.
This partnership demonstrates CrediaBank’s dedication to offer best in class, technologically advanced services to its customers by partnering with companies with proven track record in this area who have the scale to invest in innovation.
The CrediaBank–Euronet partnership demonstrates CrediaBank’s ability to modernise banking infrastructure and enhance digital payments. If extended to Malta following the acquisition of HSBC Malta, the partnership could accelerate payments innovation, introduce merchant acquiring, and expand digital financial services across the country.
Malta stands to benefit from international-grade payments technology, increased competition, and closer alignment with European instant, account-to-account and in general digital payment trends.
Malta’s economy is heavily driven by SMEs, tourism, retail, and services. Applying the Euronet partnership locally could:
- Improve card and alternative payment acceptance for merchants
- Enable faster customers onboarding, better pricing, and value-added services
- Support omnichannel commerce (in-store, online, mobile)
The partnership aligns with the European shift toward instant payments, cardless and account-to-account transactions and digital wallets and embedded financial services. For Malta, this could mean elevated consumer payment experiences beyond traditional cards, reduced dependency on cash and greater interoperability with European payment schemes.
Euronet’s ATM and cash management capabilities could enhance operational efficiency, reliability, availability of ATMs across the country and ensure continued access to cash. Euronet’s 200‑ATM network in Malta, the largest in the country, together with a potential NPA (ATM Network Participation Agreement), would expand significantly CrediaBank/HSBC customer touchpoints across the market.
Following HSBC Malta’s acquisition, the CrediaBank–Euronet model demonstrates operational readiness and scale, ensures continuity of critical payment services and reduces execution risk by collaborating with an established global payments partner.
Overall, the partnership supports Malta’s ambition to remain a competitive financial services hub.
