According to the Wall Street Journal, Visa agreed to pay more than US$2 billion for Tink, a Swedish startup whose digital services connect more than 3,400 banks and financial institutions in Europe.
The largest US card network is buying the financial-technology company to establish itself in Europe’s fast-growing open banking market. Open banking regulation in the EU and UK enables financial companies to access customers and their data at competing institutions, if the customers have granted consent.
Banks and consumer-facing financial startups use Tink’s services to create apps and other tools that let customers manage accounts at different institutions in one place.
The banks and financial institutions that Tink connects have more than 250 million customers in Europe. Through Tink, banks can access aggregated financial data, initiate payments, verify account ownership and build personal-finance management tools. Tink, founded in 2012, has 400 employees.
Visa’s takeover of Tink for €1.8 billion (US$2.15 billion) comes amid a flurry of deal activity in the fast-growing world of financial technology. Last week, JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to buy digital wealth manager Nutmeg Saving and Investment for about US$1 billion as it pushes to establish a digital retail banking presence in the UK.
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