Payments services giant Visa announced the sale of Earthport FX business to Currency Holdings Limited. The company said that Earthport’s business is better suited to work as a core part of its new owner.
A change of course
Visa’s recent announcement takes a different course from the one mentioned in its statements published in February last year. Visa and Earthport decided to sell its forex subsidiary Earthport FX Limited, to help the company focus on its core payments business. Note that Earthport FX is a separately incorporated company. It suggests that the forex business will suit the portfolio of Currency Holdings Limited much better.
Pollen Street Capital is the owner of Currency Holdings Limited, which now has access to Earthport FX’s spot and foreign exchange services. The company will move its entire business- both for individuals and businesses to its new parent organization. The transaction is yet to be approved by regulators and some other conditions. If it receives all approvals, the deal will close within 2020.
Visa’s journey with Earthport
Earthport became a part of Visa Inc. in May 2019 for $257 million. The company’s technology could help Visa in making expand further and scale the portfolio of Visa Direct. It is already being used for peer-to-peer payments, funds disbursements, bill payments, marketplace payouts, and cross-border payments. Earthport will also enable governments, businesses and individuals to use Visa and send or receive money to their bank accounts from across the world.
Head of global push payments at Visa Bill Sheley said at the time that the acquisition would help Visa push its two-account disbursement model. Sheley added,
“The ability to move money globally and efficiently, and at scale, making it simple for originators, to do all this through a single connection. … These are really all the little ingredients that are swirling around as part of this particular acquisition.”
The financial details of the transaction between Currency Holdings and Earthport FX are unknown.
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