Visa terminated a $5.3 billion deal with U.S. data-sharing platform Plaid in January.

Visa (NYSE: V) announced Thursday its deal to acquire European open banking platform Tink for €1.8 billion ($2.2 billion) as it moves to take advantage of European Union law – the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) – which facilitates open banking. The law requires banks to allow access to customer data by registered third-party providers to boost competition. (The Hindu)

Tink is one of the over 440 third-party providers across Europe that provides open banking services.

Visa, Tink and open banking

Tink’s open banking platform enables its customers such as financial institutions, fintechs, and merchants to access, through an API, financial data of European consumers and businesses.

They can therefore build various financial services, financial management tools and offer products and services using this aggregated financial data.

Through its integration with more than 3,400 banks and financial institutions, the Swedish fintech reaches over 250 million bank customers across Europe.

“The combination of Visa’s proven infrastructure and sustained investment in resilience, cybersecurity and fraud prevention with Tink’s APIs, technology and customer relationships is expected to help accelerate the adoption of open banking in Europe by ensuring a secure, reliable platform for innovation,” the firm said in a statement.

For Visa, the deal marks a diversification away from cards, where fees have come under regulatory scrutiny.

Tink was founded in 2012 by Swedish entrepreneurs Daniel Kjellén and Fredrik Hedberg, is based in Stockholm, has 400 employees, and offices in 13 countries.

It has so far raised over $300 million from investors including PayPal, SEB, and ABN AMRO.

It was last valued at €680 million, according to CNBC.

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Image Credit:  Daniel and Fredrik, Tink co-founders