Mastercard said that it has received clearance from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) for its previously announced $825m acquisition of Finicity.
Based in Utah, Finicity provides digital solutions, financial data APIs, credit decisioning tools, and financial wellness solutions to individuals, financial institutions, lenders, and fintech developers.
Mastercard signed a deal in June 2020 to acquire the company in a move to strengthen its open banking capabilities.
Mastercard, in a statement, said: “We are pleased to have reached this milestone. The acquisition of Finicity accelerates our open banking strategy and strengthens our ability to offer consumers and businesses more choice in how they pay and how they simplify their lives and maximize their financial relationships.
“We look forward to closing the deal and bringing the companies together to provide further value to consumers, banks, merchants, businesses and governments.”
At the time of signing the deal, Mastercard said that it expects to close it by the end of the year, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals and meeting of other customary closing conditions.
In addition to the consideration, Finicity’s existing shareholders can earn an additional $160m based on the company meeting certain performance milestones.
Upon closing of the deal, the existing technology and expertise of Mastercard will be combined with Finicity’s new analytics platforms. This combination is expected to help in streamlining the credit decisioning process for consumers and also small businesses.
Apart from that, the integration of Finicity’s account owner verification tools to Mastercard’s New Payment Platform capabilities will deliver an enhanced automated clearing house (ACH) and real-time payments experience to consumers, businesses, and merchants.
In a separate development, Mastercard said that it has added account-to-account (A2A) payments functionality to Mastercard Track Business Payment Service, a solution for simplifying and automating the exchange of payments-related data between buyers and suppliers.
