Rbc and BMO Explore Moneris Sale Above $2 Billion
rbc and Bank of Montreal are in talks to sell Moneris to Francisco Partners, a transaction that could value the payments company at more than $2 billion. The move would put one of Canada’s largest merchant payment processors in new hands and could reshape how a core payments platform is owned.
Moneris Handles 5 Billion Transactions
5 billion-plus transactions a year pass through Moneris, making it one of Canada’s largest merchant payment processors. A sale at that scale would put a high-volume payments business into the portfolio of a buyer that already owns Verifone and holds a stake in Paysafe.
$2 billion is the valuation threshold now in play, according to the talks reported on Sunday, May 3. That price range would make the deal one of the larger exits of a bank-owned payments unit in the current North American consolidation wave.
Francisco Partners And The Bank Exit
Last year, rbc and BMO were already exploring a possible sale of Moneris, and the new talks extend that process into direct negotiations with Francisco Partners. The report said many North American banks have stepped away from payment processing as companies like Adyen and Stripe pushed deeper into the sector, while TD Bank sold its Canadian merchant processing business to Fiserv.
Bank of America, Fifth Third Bank and PNC Financial Services have also unloaded parts of their payments units in the past few years. That leaves fewer bank-owned processors in a market where merchant volume still runs through a handful of large platforms, making Moneris a more consequential asset than a simple portfolio cleanup.
Summer Deal And Rival Bidders
By the summer, a deal could come together, according to sources familiar with the matter. The same sources said the acquisition could still fall apart or other suitors could emerge, which leaves rbc and Bank of Montreal weighing price against timing and the risk of a better bid.
For merchants that route payments through Moneris, the immediate takeaway is ownership, not daily operations: the business may be changing hands, but the asset being sold is the processor itself. If the talks hold, the next milestone is whether Francisco Partners can close before summer or whether a rival buyer forces rbc and BMO to reset the process.
