Visa announced it has acquired control of Earthport, a company that provides cross-border payment services to banks, money transfer service providers and businesses.
Acquisition of Earthport will expand Visa’s clients ability to enable individuals, businesses and governments to send and/or receive money through bank accounts around the world.
Traditionally, Visa would enable any type of payments to be sent to or from Visa cards.
“Visa is modernising the way we move money by making it quicker, safer and easier to pay and be paid than ever before,” said Bill Sheley, head of global push payments, Visa.
Furthermore, Visa expects it will be able to reach the majority of the world’s banked population and allow them to securely move money worldwide via Earthport’s access to the world’s largest independent Automated Clearing House (ACH) network.
Sheley continued: “The acquisition of Earthport unleashes the power of Visa by taking us ‘beyond the card,’ empowering us to enable our clients to make payments through bank accounts around the world.”
The digital payment giant initially made a £198 million bid for Earthport before rivals Mastercard offered £233m for the UK based firm – forcing Visa to return with the final £247m package.
Visa said over the last 12 months, its Visa Direct transaction count growth has continued to be over 100% – showing the demand for faster, smarter money movement among consumers and businesses around the world.
Earthport’s technology is expected to enable Visa to expand its offerings to such things as: cross-border payments, funds disbursements, marketplace payouts, peer-to-peer payments and bill payments.
Visa eventually won out after after Mastercard dropped its bid and instead struck a deal to buy another money transfer network, Transfast, for an undisclosed amount.
