Tink: Helping banks to expand data-driven financial services

Recognised as a leading open banking platform in Europe, Tink enables banks, fintechs and startups to develop data-driven financial services. 

The company was founded in Stockholm in 2012 with the aim of changing the banking industry for the better and has 400 employees serving 14 European markets out of 10 offices.

Through a single API, Tink allows its customers to access aggregated financial data, use smart financial services such as risk insights and account verification and build personal finance management tools. Tink is integrated with more than 3,400 banks and financial institutions, reaching millions of bank customers across Europe. 

Visa’s acquisition of Tink

On 24 June 2021 Visa, the global leader in digital payments, announced it had signed an acquisition agreement to acquire Tink for the sum of €1.8bn.

“By bringing together Visa’s network of networks and Tink’s open banking capabilities we will deliver increased value to European consumers and businesses with tools to make their financial lives more simple, reliable and secure,” said Alfred F. Kelly, Jr. CEO and Chairman of Visa.

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.

Open banking presents new capabilities 

Most recently Tink has announced the launch of ‘Income Check’ in the UK – a service that streamlines income verification using open banking technology.

The Income Check product allows banks and lenders to instantly verify a person’s income using secure and real-time data directly from their bank account. Using face recognition or with a single click, customers can consent to connecting to their bank account, where incoming transactions over more than 12 months are categorised as salary, pension, benefits, or cash deposits. 

The UK launch follows the successful rollout of Tink’s Income Check product across Europe in Sweden, Finland, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. 

Tasha Chouhan, UK & IE Banking Lead at Tink commented: “While income verification has always been a crucial part of the lending industry, the process itself has been far from simple – until now. With new capabilities made possible by open banking, income verification has finally entered the digital age, taking minutes to check instead of days or weeks. The arrival of our Income Check product in the UK, means that our UK partners can now instantly verify income directly from a user’s bank account, based on granular and secure real-time transaction data.

“This adds value for both businesses and consumers;  by making the process fast, frictionless and more accurate, we can reduce costs and enhance the customer experience. At the same time, better use of data enables better decisions, which can make financial services and lending more accessible to a wider pool of people in society.”