Visa has agreed to purchase Swedish open banking platform Tink in a deal worth $2.15bn (€1.8bn), months after its Plaid deal fell through.
The amalgamation of Visa’s cybersecurity and fraud prevention with Tink’s APIs, technology and customer relationships is anticipated to speed up open banking adoption in Europe.
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Tink will retain its brand and Stockholm headquarters upon deal completion. The firm’s existing leadership will also remain unchanged.
The transaction includes cash and retention incentives. Visa will pay for the deal using cash reserves.
The deal, which awaits regulatory nod, will not affect Visa’s planned stock buyback programme or dividend policy.
Tink CEO and co-founder Daniel Kjellén said: “Joining Visa, we will be able to move faster and reach further than ever before. Visa is the perfect partner for the next stage of Tink’s journey, and we are incredibly excited about what this will bring to our employees, customers and for the future of financial services.”
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By GlobalDataEstablished in 2012, Tink enables customers to link to bank accounts from their own apps and services through one API.
The platform connects to more than 3,400 banks, covering over 250 million bank customers across Europe.
It has secured over $300m boost from various investors including PayPal, SEB and ABN Amro.
Last month, Tink acquired Germany-based FinTecSystems.
Open banking is part of the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). It is a European regulation requiring banks to share their data with third party providers, with customers’ permission.
Visa CEO and chairman Al Kelly said: “By bringing together Visa’s network of networks and Tink’s open banking capabilities we will deliver increased value to European consumers and businesses with tools to make their financial lives more simple, reliable and secure.”
Mastercard struck a similar deal last year, buying US-based financial data aggregation service provider Finicity to support its open banking strategy.
Other Visa moves
In January this year, the $5.3bn merger agreement between Visa and fintech Plaid was scrapped following a civil antitrust lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
The DOJ believed that the deal would eliminate the significant competition from Plaid, which is building a payments platform that would challenge Visa’s monopoly in the online debit market.
Last year in November, Visa snapped up YellowPepper. The acquired entity, which has a presence in Latin America (LATAM) and the Caribbean, supports financial institutions and startups.
