Credit services JV in Spain cleared

On 30 January, the European Commission approved the acquisition of joint control over Financiera El Corte Inglés, E.F.C., S.A. (FECI) by Santander Customer Finance, S.A. (Santander) and El Corte Inglés S.A., all of Spain. FECI is specialised in credit services and is currently solely controlled by El Corte Inglés. The Commission green-lighted the transaction after concluding that it would not significantly change the market structure and there will be a number of strong players in the markets for card issuing…