Visa Acquiring Swedish Open Banking Platform Tink For $2.1B

Visa is acquiring the Swedish open banking platform Tink for $2.1 billion after backing out of a $3.5 billion deal to buy the Silicon Valley FinTech Plaid.

“Visa is committed to doing all we can to foster innovation and empower consumers in support of Europe’s open banking goals,” Visa CEO and chair Al Kelly said in a press release on Thursday (June 24). 

“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,” he added.

Headquartered in Stockholm, Tink’s open banking platform and APIs enable banks, FinTechs and merchants to develop custom financial tools and products. The combination of Tink’s APIs and technology with Visa’s infrastructure and fraud prevention is anticipated to advance open banking in Europe, according to the release.

Tink’s branding will remain in place, and the company will maintain its headquarters in Stockholm. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, according to the release.

“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,” said Tink CEO and co-founder Daniel Kjellén.

The European Union’s revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) mandates that banks facilitate access of data to third-party financial management platforms. The change in the law has advanced the development of new financial startups, products and services. Open banking solutions give consumers expanded control over how and where they share their financial data, per the release.

Kjellén co-founded Tink with Fredrik Hedberg in 2012. The FinTech startup was last valued at €680 million, CNBC reported. 

Visa abandoned its plan to acquire Tink’s rival Plaid in January following an antitrust investigation of the Department of Justice (DOJ). The antitrust suit maintained that the tie-up would give Visa a monopoly in the digital debit card space.