Dive Brief:
- U.S. Bank plans to buy San Francisco-based fintech TravelBank, the Minneapolis-based bank announced Tuesday in a press release.
- Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, but the deal could be worth $200 million, according to online travel news outlet Skift. The agreement was inked Sunday, and the deal is expected to close before the end of this year
- TravelBank first entered into a partnership with U.S. Bank in September 2020 to combine the fintech's virtual travel and expense management platform — aimed at corporate clients — with the Minneapolis lender's Instant Card, also for corporate customers.
Dive Insight:
"In partnering with TravelBank over the past year, we’ve seen how effective the solution is in improving efficiencies for businesses," Shailesh Kotwal, U.S. Bank’s vice chair of payment services, said in the release.
"We are focused on giving businesses more confidence, control and convenience in managing payments and expenses," Kotwal added. "TravelBank will help us accelerate these efforts."
Tuesday's deal is far from U.S. Bank's first to optimize expense management for corporate clients. The bank partnered with Chrome River in May 2019 to launch an app called Expense Wizard in a bid to streamline the expense report management process.
Building on the technology of Expense Wizard, which integrated a virtual card into a mobile wallet, U.S. Bank launched its Instant Card in June 2020. That card allows a company's employees and contractors to make authorized expenditures via a card pushed directly to their mobile phone for immediate use.
TravelBank and U.S. Bank teamed up three months later, adding an integrated payment tool to the TravelBank platform that allowed the fintech to tighten spending and policy controls, and refine expense reporting.
The U.S. Bank-TravelBank partnership also gave the bank access to myriad smaller clients that fall outside of its traditional corporate card client base.
"With its track record of delivering innovative payment solutions that improve efficiencies for businesses, we couldn’t be more excited to join the U.S. Bank family," TravelBank CEO Duke Chung said in the release. "Our combined offering with U.S. Bank will be the most comprehensive expense, travel and payment management solution in the industry."
After the deal closes, Chung will work under Jeff Jones, U.S. Bank's head of corporate payment and treasury solutions, according to American Banker.