Mastercard today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Finicity, a leading North American provider of real-time access to financial data and insights. The purchase price is US$825 million, and Finicity’s existing shareholders have the potential for an earn-out of up to an additional $160 million, if performance targets are met. The transaction, which is anticipated to close by year’s end, is subject to regulatory review and other customary closing conditions.
Open banking gives people and businesses more control over their financial data. This includes determining how and where third parties – such as fintechs or other banks – can access that information to provide new services like money management programs or initiate payments on their behalf.
Mastercard has increasingly invested in this space over several years, including the 2019 launch of a set of comprehensive open banking solutions in Europe. The combination of these efforts with the Finicity technology powering platforms such as Quicken Loans Rocket Mortgage and Experian Boost has the potential to shape the next generation of open banking services.
“Open banking is a growing global trend and a strategically important space for us. With the addition of Finicity, we expect to not only advance our open banking strategy, but enhance how we support and accelerate today’s digital economy across several markets,” said Michael Miebach, president of Mastercard. “Finicity has a proven business, built on partnerships with thousands of banks and fintechs, similar to us. Finicity also shares our commitment to consumer-centric data practices, ensuring consumers have a say in how and where their information should be used. It’s through the use of next generation open banking APIs and clear consumer approvals that this financial information can deliver streamlined loan and mortgage processes, rapid account-based payment initiation and personal financial management solutions.”
Finicity’s technology will enhance Mastercard’s existing open banking solutions by enabling them to expand in North America and other key geographies. Today, Mastercard open banking services in Europe feature connections to more than 1,800 financial institutions. With a direct connection to the North American banking, lending and wealth management ecosystem, Mastercard will extend Finicity’s reach to be a one-stop partner for any consumer, bank, merchant, fintech or government’s data, payment and open banking needs.
Following the completion of the transaction, Mastercard’s existing technology and expertise combined with Finicity’s new analytics platforms, will help streamline the credit decisioning process for consumers and small businesses. Additionally, the integration of Finicity’s account owner verification tools to Mastercard’s New Payment Platform capabilities will deliver an improved ACH and real-time payments experience to consumers, merchants and businesses.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
