Visa has agreed to purchase Plaid, a fintech firm that connects bank accounts with fintech apps, in a $5.3bn transaction.
The deal is said to enable Visa to cooperate more closely with fintechs and grow its core business.
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It is also said to offer improved payment capabilities to fintech developers.
Visa’s stock buyback programme or dividend policy is said to remain affected by the deal.
Visa CEO and chairman Al Kelly said: “This acquisition is the natural evolution of Visa’s 60-year journey from safely and securely connecting buyers and sellers to connecting consumers with digital financial services.
“The combination of Visa and Plaid will put us at the epicenter of the fintech world, expanding our total addressable market and accelerating our long-term revenue growth trajectory.”
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By GlobalDataVisa will finance the purchase using available liquidity and debt issuance.
The deal is anticipated to wrap up within the coming three to six months. It currently awaits regulatory nod.
Plaid CEO and co-founder Zach Perret said: “Visa is trusted by billions of consumers, businesses and financial institutions as a key part of the financial ecosystem, and together Visa and Plaid can support the rapid growth of digital financial services.”
Users of Plaid can exchange their financial data with Venmo, Acorns, Betterment, Chime, and Transferwise, among others.
Visa has carried out several consolidation activities in recent years.
Last year, the firm acquired payment gateway software provider Payworks as well as token services and ticketing businesses of Rambus.
Visa also snapped up payment protection solutions provider Verifi, and cross-border payment services provider Earthport in 2019.
In November 2019, Visa picked a minority stake in Nigerian fintech Interswitch.
