Visa has completed its acquisition of Swedish start-up Tink to strengthen its footprint in the open banking industry in Europe.

The payments giant first confirmed it was acquiring Tink last June, when it was announced that Tink would be acquired for €1.8bn, months after the collapse of Visa’s acquisition of Plaid, another open banking start-up.

Visa had put $5.3bn on the table to buy the company before the US Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit to block the deal, claiming it would damage competition.

Now, Visa is putting its hopes on Tink to help it gain a stronghold in the European open banking industry which has been booming since the EU’s revised Payments Services Directive (PSD2) came into force, stipulating that banks must open up their data chests to third-party providers.

Based in Stockholm, Tink is an open banking start-up that builds APIs for banks and fintech companies to manage and build products with financial data. Tink’s APIs are integrated with more than 3,400 banks and financial institutions.

Visa push for open banking

Visa hopes now that the acquisition of Tink is complete, it will be able to provide substantial benefits to customers by improving their financial management experience through greater control over money, data and goals.

Digital tools provided by Tink will also help businesses operate digitally and securely while performing tasks such as initiating payments, reconciling bank statements and accounts, and enabling alternative financing.

“Digital tools are driving the new economy, and the combination of Visa and Tink will support greater choice and quality of digital money services as the lines between commerce, financial services and payments continue to converge,” said Charlotte Hogg, CEO of Visa Europe.

Visa’s chief product officer, Jack Forestell, thinks that openness and innovation are “the two vital elements necessary to fuel the growth of future digital financial services”, which can be offered as a result of the acquisition.

“Tink’s APIs, technology and customer relationships will help accelerate the adoption of open banking around the world by providing a secure, reliable platform for innovation,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tink stands to gain significantly from the investment too. Co-founder and CEO Daniel Kjellén, who will continue to lead Tink as a standalone subsidiary, said that Visa’s global network is the “best foundation” for the start-up to build on and scale.

“Visa will help Tink increase its connectivity to more than 15,000 financial institutions, utilising Visa’s consumer trust and brand recognition to develop the future of financial services, that we can together offer to clients throughout Europe, and around the globe.”

Earlier this month, Tink teamed up with An Post to bring new money management services to Irish customers. Tink’s open banking technology will power the An Post app to simplify financial management for users across Ireland.

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