Visa acquires Swedish fintech Tink for €1.8 billion

Visa is set to acquire Swedish fintech firm Tink for €1.8 billion (£1.5 billion), the financial giant announced today, which will see it use its technology to accelerate the adoption of open banking.

Tink is a European open banking platform that allows financial institutions, fintech firms, and merchants to build tailored financial management tools, products, and services for consumers and businesses based on their financial data.

The fintech firm, which is integrated with over 3,400 banks and financial institutions, will retain its brand and current management team as well as its headquarters in Stockholm.

Visa is aiming to use Tink’s technology to help accelerate the adoption of open banking throughout Europe.

“Visa is committed to doing all we can to foster innovation and empower consumers in support of Europe’s open banking goals,” said Al Kelly, CEO and Chairman of Visa. “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.”

Visa is also hoping to give consumers better control of managing their money and financial data through the acquisition, and businesses will have a greater and more customised range of tools to operate digitally and securely, the firm revealed.

“We have built something incredible and at the same time we have only scratched the surface,” said Daniel Kjellén, CEO and co-founder of Tink. “Joining Visa, we will be able to move faster and reach further than ever before.”

In March, Visa announced it would allow customers to settle transactions on its payment network in a stablecoin cryptocurrency linked to the US dollar called USD Coin. The option to pay in this format was to be made available through Visa’s pilot programme with cryptocurrency platform Crypto.com, and it was reportedly going to extend it to other partners later in the year.