Chilean antitrust watchdog Fiscalía Nacional Económica, or the FNE, said it would extend for 90 days its probe on whether Banco Santander Chile's purchase of a 33.33% stake in the payment company Servipag Ltda. poses a threat to free competition, Diario Financiero reported.

FNE is reportedly studying if the acquisition could trigger Santander to close branches and ATMs as the three banks would gain a significant market share in digital banking, potentially giving incentive to down-scaling of traditional banking operations.

Servipag is one of the country's market leaders in transaction and payment services and is currently jointly owned by Banco de Chile and Banco de Credito e Inversiones SA.