NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Nov. 9, 2020--The civil antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to stop Visa Inc.'s (AA-/Stable/A-1+) $5.3 billion acquisition of Plaid Inc., an "open banking" technology company, if successful, would deprive the company of a business diversification opportunity, but would not have a major impact on Visa's financial position or overall creditworthiness. We also believe the lawsuit is an example of the type of legal and regulatory risk that can arise due to Visa's high market share in electronic payments. We factor such risks in our ratings on the company. Plaid is the largest of several acquisitions Visa has announced in the past couple years as part of its strategy to play
