Visa Buys Tink

A few months ago we spoke about how Visa was forced to abandon their $5 billion acquisition of Plaid due to regulatory issues. Yesterday, Visa announced that they are buying Tink for $2 billion. Roughly speaking, Tink is the European version of North America's Plaid.

Tink is a fintech company that pulls information from financial service providers, allowing for centralising data. Currently Tink integrates with 3 400 financial service providers and has some big name partners in PayPal and American Express.

The idea is that you can pull all your financial data into a single app. Having all your data in one place allows for better decision making and allows financial institutions to offer customised products.

Visa plans to keep the current management team in place and to keep the Tink brand. It is currently unclear what the long term plan is, but owning this business will further entrench Visa in the global financial network.