Visa has announced that it has acquired a payments network company, Earthport, which is a partner of Ripple and has banking relationships in 87 countries. Visa acquired Earthport for approximately $331 million.
The offer was recommended by Visa’s board, and though MasterCard was also bidding to acquire Earthport, the former eventually triumphed. Visa’s intention with the acquisition is to offer an alternative to SWIFT payments. Individuals and businesses will now be able to use the Visa network to send payments across the world, as opposed to other transfer systems.
Use cases include pay rolls and international payments between individuals and businesses. Visa is also working on a B2B blockchain network.
Bill Sheley, head of global push payments at Visa, was excited about the acquisition, saying,
Visa is modernizing the way we move money by making it quicker, safer and easier to pay and be paid than ever before. 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.
Visa is also working on its own crypto division.
