Integrion Financial Network announced Monday that it had completed its long-anticipated acquisition of Visa Interactive.
Integrion, jointly owned by International Business Machines Corp. and 16 U.S. and Canadian banks, will take over the assets, staff, bill-payment technology, and home banking relationships that the Visa International division had established with more than 60 financial institutions.
The companies did not reveal financial terms. During months of negotiations, Visa had reportedly grown willing to take little money if the interests of its banks were preserved.
Officials of the card association had publicly admitted they were mistaken to try developing a wholly owned home banking capability.
Visa International will now get an Integrion board seat alongside IBM and its partners.
"Our objective in founding Visa Interactive was to ensure that the banks had the leadership position in this industry," said Visa executive vice president William E. Stewart. "Now our job, as a member of the Integrion board, is to make Integrion the industry standard and the most successful home banking enterprise in the country."
Mr. Stewart had overseen the enterprise since the departure in January of Wesley Tallman, the head of global product development who negotiated the acquisition of what became Visa Interactive from U.S. Order-now Intelidata Technologies Corp.-in 1994.
Integrion and Visa officials said they share the goal of providing the technology needed to deliver banking services via remote channels including personal computers, phones, and the Internet.
Integrion said it also expects to maintain Visa Interactive's relationships with technology partners including Meca Software, Home Financial Network, and Microsoft-suppliers of front-end client software for PC banking.
Visa brings "quite a number of small and very small customers," said William M. Fenimore Jr., managing director of Integrion. "This isn't just a big boys' club. It is for the whole industry."
Not included in the sale is Visa ePay, an electronic billing and payment utility that Mr. Stewart described as a "core competency."
Although Integrion banks may choose bill-payment options from nonbanks such as Checkfree Corp., ePay will be the "preferred service," Mr. Fenimore said.
Integrion and Visa Interactive have been working for three weeks to merge their technical specifications, said Christopher F. Schellhorn, president and chief operating officer of Visa Interactive, who will continue to run the unit's Herndon, Va., operation as Integrion's director of operations.
George A. Budd, who had been responsible for operations, will remain Mr. Fenimore's top deputy as director of corporate development.
"The combination of Visa Interactive technology with what Integrion is proposing to implement over time is just going to enhance everything that First Union can offer our customers," said Edgar D. Brown, senior vice president of remote banking at the Charlotte, N.C., banking company. First Union, a Visa Interactive loyalist, will be joining archrival NationsBank Corp. in Integrion.
