Visa acquired the financial company Plaid for 5.3 billion dollars according to a press release published on 13th January.
According to a press release published on 13th January Plaid has created a network that allows users to easily connect their financial accounts to applications they use to manage their financial life.
The company's products are said to enable the convenient sharing of financial information with thousands of applications and services, allowing users to combine different accounts.
The announcement states that 75% of the world's Internet users have used fintech applications to move funds. It is therefore "increasingly important to facilitate the use of fintech applications by consumers".
Plaid also supports the crypto-currency portfolio of Abra, while Coinbase for crypto-currency exchange uses the company's services to obtain the customer's bank information.
Visa hopes that this acquisition will enable it to work more closely with financial technology companies. Kelly explained that the acquisition of Plaid is moving Visa from merging buyers and sellers to merging consumers with fintech services.
This acquisition remains subject to regulatory and customary closing conditions and will not affect Visa's previously announced share buy-back program or dividend policy. The transaction is expected to be closed within the next three to six months.
