In Brief:
- Visa announced it has completed the acquisition of Currencycloud.
- Visa and Currencycloud clients will be able to provide better transparency, flexibility, and control when making international transactions.
- The acquisition extends on Currencycloud’s and Visa’s existing strategic alliance.
Digital payments firm Visa announced that it finalized the buyout of Currencycloud, an international platform that enables banks and fintech to offer new cross-border payment foreign exchange solutions.
According to the press release, customers and companies will benefit from the acquisition as Visa and Currencycloud clients and partners will be able to provide better transparency, flexibility, and control when making international transactions or conducting business in various currencies.
Visa offered to acquire Currencycloud for 700 million British pounds (about $962 million) in July as part of a global money-transfer initiative.
The acquisition extends on Currencycloud’s and Visa’s existing strategic alliance. Visa joined other blue-chip investors like BNP Paribas and Siam Commercial Bank in an $80 million Series E fundraising round in Currencycloud in January.
Currencycloud’s cloud-based platform already serves approximately 500 financial and technology clients in over 180 countries, and it will continue to do so in the future. Every month, the platform handles roughly $5 billion in cross-border transactions.
Currencycloud employs application programming interfaces (APIs) to assist financial services companies in delivering currency exchange services, real-time transaction notifications, multicurrency wallets, and virtual account management.
CEO of Currencycloud, Mike Laven, stated, “As we continue to execute on the strategy that got us this far, with the additional strength of Visa’s global network behind us, we expect to be able to move further, faster – expanding our offering, extending our global footprint and identifying and supporting new audiences.”
Just two weeks ago Visa announced the launch of a global crypto advisory unit designed to help clients and partners advance their crypto business. Visa’s crypto advisory team will collaborate with the financial institutions’ consulting and analytics groups to provide advice on crypto strategy and execution.
