As IDC Ventures pursues a High Court challenge to Lloyds’ acquisition of Curve, experts have weighed in on what the deal could mean for the wider payments market.
Curve, the UK digital wallet provider, has run into fresh controversy as one of its largest investors launches a legal challenge against its £125m ($163.92m) sale to Lloyds Banking Group.
IDC Ventures, which holds the largest external stake in Curve, filed a petition in the High Court on November 21, attempting to block the deal after months of negotiation and a formal announcement by Lloyds on November 19.
The investor claims decisions by Curve’s management and certain shareholders, including Hanaco, another major shareholder, undermined the rights of other investors and allowed some parties to gain unfair economic and voting control.
IDC argues the process involved the concealment of material information from both the board and shareholders, contributing to a valuation it describes as “severely depressed.”
“The claim sets out the intentional concealment of material information by certain parties from the board and shareholders, combined with breaches of contract and directors’ duties, which caused financial distress that was then used to force through a highly favourable restructuring of voting rights in favour of Hanaco and directors aligned with it, to the detriment of other shareholders,” the firm said in a statement covered by Sky News, adding the deal wiped out more than £670m in potential value for investors.
IDC also questioned how Lloyds could proceed with the acquisition while aware of these disputes, stating it “chose to simply ignore them and proceed with the transaction without regard to the legal dispute.”
About more than being ‘one card among many’
While industry stakeholders patiently await the outcome of the legal challenge, many are already considering what Lloyds’ £120m acquisition of Curve could mean for the wider payments ecosystem.
In comments shared with Payment Expert, Chris Jones, Managing Director at PSE Consulting, described the deal as the acquisition of a “proven, fully regulated wallet platform that can orchestrate multiple payment types behind a single card or token,” a capability he noted remains rare among banks.
Much of the attention has focused on whether Lloyds could compete with Apple Pay and Google Pay through Curve’s NFC tap-to-pay solution, especially amid increasing scrutiny on the dominance of US-based payments providers.
Jones argued, however, that NFC alone is unlikely to see customers switching. He said customers already embedded in Apple’s ecosystem are unlikely to adopt a bank-branded wallet solely for tap-to-pay functionality.
This aligns with views shared by Gerry Davies, Payments Commercial Director at Santander, at MoneyLIVE last week, who noted the drive toward alternative payment methods instead of cards in the UK is being pushed by regulators rather than consumers.
Jones believes the true value of the deal is in the potential to create a flexible, next-generation bank account. He explained Curve’s multi-funding rails allow customers to select the best payment method for each transaction, such as debit, credit, instalments, partner credit lines, or Open Banking, without switching between cards.
“The integration of Curve’s technology would help deepen customer loyalty by positioning the Lloyds app as the primary hub for payment decisions, while offering a “smarter” account experience that adapts in real time to each customer’s needs,” said Jones.
“In a market where product boundaries are increasingly blurred, this positions Lloyds at the centre of a consumer’s payment decision rather than one card among many.”
