As Visa slowly comes to the completion of its recommended cash offer of Earthport’s share capital, Visa announced today of a new course of action. This course of action differs from the statements that the company had made in its offer document, published back in February of 2019

Selling to Currency Holdings For The “Good of The Company”

Following the completion of the transaction, both Earthport and Visa have made the collective decision of selling Earthport FX Limited, the FX subsidiary of Earthport proper. The official reason given for this is to help Earthport accelerate the growth of its core payment business. In a nice spin to the subject matter, Visa claims that the company believes Earthport FX and its business will better serve a new owner’s core business segment, instead of Earthport.

As it stands now, Earthport FX Limited has been sold to one Currency Holdings Limited. Currency Holdings is a business that is, in turn, owned by Pollen Street Capital. Earthport FX Limited is a provider of foreign exchange and spot services to both individuals and companies, standing as a separately incorporated, regulated company.

Seeking Regulatory Approval

The transaction in and of itself needs to first be first approved by the relevant regulators, as well as achieve other conditions. If all goes well, the deal will reach its completion later this year.

During the month of May of 2019, one of the world’s largest payment processors, Visa Inc, had announced that it had acquired control of Earthport. Through its acquisition, VIsa has gained the ability for its clients to enable businesses, governments, and individuals to use Visa to send and receive money through bank accounts across the globe. With Earthport’s technology in tow, Visa will be capable of expanding and scaling its Visa Direct service, even more, reaching an expanding portfolio of use cases. Things like peer-to-peer payments, cross border payments, funds disbursements, bill payments, and marketplace payouts are all now possible due to the acquisition.

Changing Times

What will happen in the future remains unclear, but Visa seems keen on expanding its offering even more. Last year, the company had tried to get into the crypto industry by way of the now mostly defunct Libra coin, but due to the massive backlash, that never came to fruition. It’ll be only a matter of time before Visa tries anew to expand in the crypto industry, but for now, it’s more than likely that it’s pushing into familiar territory until it’s ready.