The Departement of Justice could sue to block Visa’s $5.3 billion acquisition of bank data sharing startup Plaid over competition concerns, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The DOJ has been getting ready for the possibility of litigation, WSJ said, citing some of the unnamed sources. However, a final course of action has not been determined.
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“American consumers rely on the Antitrust Division to investigate mergers promptly and thoroughly,” said Assistant Attorney for the Antitrust Division Makan Delrahim, in a statement.
“Collecting relevant third-party documents and data is essential to the division’s ability to analyze these transactions. Too often, third parties seek to flout these requirements, hoping the division will lose interest and focus its enforcement efforts elsewhere,” he added.
Visa has agreed to the $5.3 billion deal for Plaid this January. Plaid enables consumers to conveniently share their financial information with thousands of apps and services such as Acorns, Betterment, Chime, Transferwise and Venmo.
Visa’s bid for Plaid isn’t the only big fintech acquisition that is in the DOJ’s sights, according to the report in The Wall Street Journal.
Federal regulators are also looking at Mastercard’s $1 billion bid for the fintech startup Finicity, and Intuit’s $7 billion pitch to acquire the credit advisory and lending marketplace, Credit Karma.
