(8 May 2019 – United Kingdom) Visa has completed its acquisition of UK-based Earthport providing the card scheme access into the $80 trillion account-to-account payments market.
After competing with Mastercard for the money transfer network over the festive season, Visa eventually won out with a £247 million package and Mastercard dropped its bid and instead struck ka deal to buy another network, Transfast.
The acquisition will make it possible for Visa’s clients to enable individuals, businesses and governments to utilise the Visa network to send and/or receive money through bank accounts around the world, skipping public and private wire transfer rails.
“Visa is modernizing the way we move money by making it quicker, safer and easier to pay and be paid than ever before,” says Bill Sheley, head of global push payments, Visa. “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.”