Johnson Winter Slattery | View firm profile
Leading independent law firm Johnson Winter Slattery has successfully advised Cuscal Limited (Cuscal) on its strategic investment in Basiq Pty Ltd (Basiq), a leading data and open banking API platform. As part of the transaction, Cuscal has entered into a binding agreement to acquire a material controlling interest in Braavos Corporation Pty Ltd, the parent company of Basiq.
Cuscal is one of Australia’s largest independent providers of payments, banking and regulated data services. The acquisition represents a significant and strategic investment by Cuscal in the open data economy, bringing together two of the industry’s leading Consumer Data Right (CDR) and payment systems to accelerate the development of new services and customer experiences. Basiq will continue to operate as a stand-alone business within the Cuscal Group.
A team of specialists across JWS’ M&A, regulatory, employment and intellectual property and technology practice areas worked collaboratively on the transaction including corporate partner, Marko Komadina and special counsel, Kate Gardner; regulatory partner, Jennifer Dean; employment partner, Jan Dransfield; and IP and technology partner, Ravi de Fonseka.
JWS corporate partner, Marko Komadina, led the transaction and said “The open banking and CDR industry is a complex and rapidly evolving space and we are delighted to have assisted Cuscal on all aspects of getting this strategic acquisition over the line. It is particularly pleasing to have worked with Cuscal to strengthen its position as a leading provider of payments and regulated data services in Australia and we look forward to seeing what further developments the business can introduce with Basiq as part of the group.”
The transaction is subject to customary conditions.
About Cuscal Limited (Cuscal)
For more than 50 years, Cuscal has championed competition in banking and payments in Australia. More recently, Cuscal has moved beyond banking and payments into the broader data economy. Drawing upon extensive experience managing payments data that is digital, regulated, must always be secure, and flows seamlessly between consumers and enterprise. As an accredited data recipient (ADRBNK2019) and the provider of compliant data holder solutions, Cuscal provides data holders and data recipients access to a suite of secure and robust capabilities for the collection, sharing, management and storage of data subject to CDR legislation.
About Basiq
Basiq’s vision is to make finance easy. Basiq sees a world where consumers are empowered to make smarter financial decisions and can engage with their finances in new and unique ways. Basiq enables this by providing an Open Finance API platform for businesses to build innovative financial solutions. The platform facilitates the relationship between fintechs and consumers by enabling access to consented financial data and executing smart data-driven payments.
About Johnson Winter Slattery
Johnson Winter Slattery is an independent Australian law firm with over 80 partners and 6 offices across Australia. We advise major corporates, funds and governments on their most challenging transactions and disputes.
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