Visa acquires control of Earthport

Visa has announced it has acquired control of Earthport, a company that provides cross-border payment services to businesses, banks and money transfer service providers via the world’s largest independent ACH network.

Currently, Visa enables payments to be sent to or from Visa cards. The acquisition will make it possible for Visa clients to enable businesses, governments and individuals to use Visa to send and/or receive money through bank accounts around the world. With the acquisition of Earthport, Visa expects to be able to reach the vast majority of the world’s banked population and allow them to move money worldwide.

This transaction can solve for many use cases including payroll and international person-to-person and business-to-business remittances. With the combined capabilities of Visa and Earthport, Visa can be the single network for payments, helping to pay contractors and employees around the world.

Earthport’s technology will allow Visa to further expand and scale Visa Direct’s rapidly growing portfolio of use cases, including funds disbursements, peer-to-peer payments, cross-border payments, marketplace payouts, and bill payments. Over the past 12 months, Visa Direct’s transaction count growth has continued to be over 100%.