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First announced in June last year, the €1.8bn acquisition of Tink is expected to help Visa customers tap into open banking.
Visa has completed its acquisition of Swedish start-up Tink to strengthen its footprint in the open banking space in Europe.
The payments giant first announced plans to acquire Tink last June in a €1.8bn deal.
It came just a few months after the collapse of Visa’s acquisition of Plaid, another open banking start-up. Visa had put $5.3bn on the table to buy the company before the US Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit to block the deal, claiming it would damage competition.
Now, Visa is betting on Tink to tap into open banking applications in Europe following the introduction of the EU’s revised Payments Services Directive (PSD2), which stipulates that banks must open up their data chests to third-party providers.
Based in Stockholm, Tink is an open banking start-up that builds APIs for banks and fintech companies to manage and build products with financial data. Tink’s APIs are integrated with more than 3,400 banks and financial institutions.
Earlier this month, Tink teamed up with An Post to bring new money management services to Irish customers. Its open banking technology will power the An Post Money Manager app to help customers understand their spending and savings behaviour.
Visa’s open banking push
Visa hopes now that the acquisition of Tink is complete, it will be able to provide substantial benefits to customers by giving them greater control over money, data and goals.
Digital tools provided by Tink will also help businesses operate digitally and securely while performing tasks such as initiating payments, reconciling bank statements and accounts, and enabling alternative financing.
“Digital tools are driving the new economy, and the combination of Visa and Tink will support greater choice and quality of digital money services as the lines between commerce, financial services and payments continue to converge,” said Charlotte Hogg, CEO of Visa Europe.
Visa’s chief product officer, Jack Forestell, added that openness and innovation are “the two vital elements necessary to fuel the growth of future digital financial services”.
“Tink’s APIs, technology and customer relationships will help accelerate the adoption of open banking around the world by providing a secure, reliable platform for innovation,” he said.
Tink stands to gain significantly from the deal too. Co-founder and CEO Daniel Kjellén, who will continue to lead Tink as a standalone subsidiary, said that Visa’s global network is the “best foundation” for the start-up to build on and scale.
“Visa will help Tink increase its connectivity to more than 15,000 financial institutions, utilising Visa’s consumer trust and brand recognition to develop the future of financial services, that we can together offer to clients throughout Europe, and around the globe.”
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