Visa Targets Argentina Growth via Prisma and Newpay Acquisition

Visa plans to acquire two companies in Argentina — Prisma and Newpay — from private equity firm Advent International.

The company entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the firms and expects the transaction to close during the current quarter, subject to closing conditions, Visa said in a Thursday (Feb. 19) press release.

Prisma provides credit, debit and prepaid card issuer processing, while Newpay operates real-time payments services, an ATM network and a bill payment platform, according to the release.

The combination of these platforms and Visa’s current offerings will accelerate Visa’s deployment of tokenization, biometric authentication, intelligent risk tools, agentic commerce solutions and other advanced technologies across Argentina, the release said.

“This acquisition is an important step for Visa in Argentina, strengthening our client partnerships and advancing innovation across the payments ecosystem,” Visa CEO Ryan McInerney said in the release.

McInerney highlighted the appeal of tap-to-pay functions in Argentina during a January earnings call, saying Visa saw double-digit growth of contactless payments in face-to-face transactions in the country during the most recent quarter.

Gabriela Renaudo, group country manager, Visa Argentina and Southern Cone, said in the Thursday press release: “We see significant opportunities to expand digital payments adoption and modernize financial services, capabilities and infrastructure across the country.”

Advent International said in a Thursday press release that the acquisition highlights the importance of the payments infrastructure developed in Argentina by Prisma and Newpay.

The company added that Prisma and Newpay are subsidiaries of Group Prisma, an Argentine payments company that underwent a strategic transformation under Advent’s ownership, including a separation into three independent platforms. Prisma and Newpay are two of those platforms. The third, merchant acquiring business Payway, will remain owned by Advent.

“We believe Visa is well positioned to support the continued evolution and long-term success of Prisma and Newpay, and remain excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for Payway,” Advent Managing Partner Juan Pablo Zucchini said in the release.

When Advent bought a majority stake in Prisma in 2019, it described the firm as one of the largest payments companies in Latin America and said the Argentine market was poised for strong growth as it increased its adoption of electronic payments.