Visa has arranged to to acquire e-commerce payment authentication provider CardinalCommerce to improve the company’s cross-platform payments security capabilities.
The transaction, which is subject to the customary closing conditions, is expected to close in Visa’s second fiscal quarter 2017. Financial terms have not been disclosed.
Visa already provides Cardinal’s services to merchants and acquirers through its CyberSource merchant and acquirer enablement platform. Additionally, Visa will draw upon its global relationships and presence to drive international expansion of Cardinal’s products and services.
As Visa plans to integrate tokenization into Visa Checkout over the next 18 months, the addition of Cardinal is expected to allow closer integration of 3-D Secure and delivery of new fraud mitigation capabilities to merchants.
Cardinal will continue to operate and serve all of its clients as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Visa, and its authentication platform will continue to support a broad range of payment brands and partners across the industry. Co-founders Tim Sherwin and Chandra Balasubramanian will stay on as leaders of the Cardinal team.
“This strategic acquisition combines Visa’s industry expertise and Cardinal’s critical role in payment authentication to bring added security to online transactions, reduce fraud and support digital commerce, which is the fastest growing commerce segment today,” Visa SVP of risk and authentication products Mark Nelsen said.
“By helping merchants, acquirers, and issuers better distinguish between good and bad transactions, Visa is in an even better position to strengthen consumer trust in digital payments, help merchants grow their businesses, and accelerate innovation in commerce.”
