The Department of Justice (DOJ) has cleared the way for Mastercard to acquire data aggregator Finicity, in a deal valued at $825 million.

Why should we care?
The DOJ decision was interpreted as good news for fintechs looking for secure, efficient ways to connect their platforms to customer account information. Finicity, like Plaid, allows third-party financial apps to connect to consumer accounts via APIs. In recent weeks, however, the DOJ filed an antitrust lawsuit to block Visa’s planned $5.3B acquisition of Plaid. The DOJ is concerned that Visa, through Plaid would create or maintain a monopoly, and eliminate a competitive threat that could result in substantial savings and more debit services for merchants and consumers. Not so for Finicity, however, and Mastercard said the Finicity acquisition will accelerate its open banking strategy and will offer consumers and businesses more choices in how they pay and run their financial lives. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.