Heavyweights Visa & Mastercard battle for Earthport B2B asset

Global credit card processing giants VISA and MasterCard are battling each other to secure the acquisition B2B cross border fixed payment network Earthport.

Closing trading on Friday 8 February, Visa upped its opening £200m bid for Earthpoint to £247m, moving to outbid MasterCard’s £233m counter offer proposed at the start of the month.  

MasterCard governance quickly confirmed that it would move to counter Visa’s takeover offer, as Earthport London Stock Exchange shares reach an all-time high.

Operating initially as a standard B2B payment supplier, London-based Earthport has expanded its fixed foreign exchange (FX) transactional capabilities for large-scale enterprises, becoming a valued player in the UK FinTech scene.

Sector analysts report that both Visa and MasterCard eye Earthport as a key asset for expanding their B2B services, adding much needed client cost saving functions.

Earthport products and services allow clients to conduct large scale/sum payments, securing the best value for the transaction which is attached to a fixed-FX rate charge.

Earthport clients include Bank of America, Ripple, Japan Post Bank and TransferWise.