Sector note · Payments
Payments: consolidation under licence
Turkish payment companies are bought for their licence and their merchants; every step past 10% needs the central bank’s approval, and the timetable follows it.
Named deals
- 1Paynet iyzico · USD 87m · 2024
- 2Dgpays, minority Mastercard · value not disclosed · 2024
- 3Ödüyo QNB eSolutions · value not disclosed · 2026
- 01
Payment and electronic money institutions need a central bank licence under Law No. 6493; their supervision moved from the banking regulator to the central bank on 1 January 2020.
- 02
A purchase that takes a shareholder to 10% or more, or across 20%, 33% or 50%, needs central bank permission; an unapproved transfer cannot be entered in the share register.
- 03
On 9 October 2026 the central bank listed 20 payment institutions and 56 electronic money institutions in operation.
- 04
Arena agreed in May 2024 to sell all of Paynet to iyzico for USD 87m plus net cash; the Competition Board approved on 9 January 2025 and the central bank on 30 January 2025, about nine months after signing.
- 05
Mastercard took a minority stake in Dgpays in December 2024, alongside joint product work for Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Orion view
A payments buyer is buying a licence it cannot get quickly and merchants it cannot win quickly. Build the timetable around the central bank: approval took about nine months for Paynet. Before going to market, have the regulatory file clean, the ownership chain documented down to 10%, and volume and margin by merchant segment ready, because that is what the price is built on.
Sources: as cited above, read October 2026; Orion Capital Partners analysis.
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