Visa aquires British company Earthport which is a partner of Ripple a crypto currency | Credit card reward programs | Discussion forum

User230 said
VISA is a credit card company not a crypto currency company. Why would they make this move?

They suggest it's for cross boarder transactions. Which might mean changes to how foreign payments with their credit card is done? Just a guess. It does offer other advantages as well. Like access to Ripple.

VISA is actually a payments business. Physical VISA credit cards are just one of their payment products. They also have physical VISA debit cards along with non-physical VISA cards.

VISA does have substantial cross-border transactions between their member financial institutions. According to the article, Earthport has technology to make cross-border transactions cheaper. That would cut the costs of settling VISA's cross-border transactions.

The technology of interest is not necessarily Ripple's XRP cryptocurrency:

… Aside from providing access to the Ripple ecosystem, this API offers access to the variety of payment methods that Earthport currently offers in more than 200 countries.

Not much change for consumers. But, could be different and cheaper for VISA to settle the charge between a merchant's bank in the US and the cardholder's bank in Canada.