Australia’s Cuscal acquires Open Banking platform Basiq

Australian payment provider Cuscal has made a strategic investment in Basiq, a data and Open Banking API platform.

Cuscal has entered into a binding agreement, under which it will acquire a material controlling interest in Braavos Corporation Pty, the parent company of Basiq, subject to customary conditions.

Following completion of the deal, Basiq will continue to operate as a stand-alone business within the Cuscal Group, while it is expected that there will be no material change to the current structure of the team at Basiq or to Cuscal’s regulated data business.

Basiq chief executive officer and founder Damir Ćuća said: “To provide a complete platform, it was inevitable that Basiq would need to enhance its payment services.

“Cuscal is behind most of the innovative payment services in Australia and was the first to launch PayTo capability to the market, making it possible to use the new payment services that provide real-time account-to-account payments.”

Basiq confirmed it will continue to provide clients and the broader industry with access to consented financial data through its platform.

The two companies will also work together on enabling new high-value use cases, including those that are made possible by Consumer Data Right-powered action initiations.

Craig Kennedy, Cuscal’s managing director, said the acquisition is an exciting new chapter, “as we fast-track our maturity in enabling the Open Data economy and cement our position as a leading provider of payments and regulated data services in Australia”.

“Together with Basiq we have unmatched expertise and capabilities with respect to the combination of payments, data, and the CDR. We look forward to unlocking the full potential of these assets for the mutual benefit of our clients and the wider industry,” Kennedy added.