Dive Brief:

• U.S. Bank plans to buy San Francisco-based fintech TravelBank, the Minneapolis-based bank announced Tuesday.
• Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, but the deal could be worth $200 million, according to 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 integrate the fintech's virtual travel and expense management platform — aimed at corporate clients — with the Minneapolis lender's Instant Card.  

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 a statement Tuesday. "This acquisition will allow us to significantly expand our client base and deliver even more value to our customers."

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 upon the technology of Expense Wizard, which integrated a virtual card into a mobile wallet, U.S. Bank launched its Instant Card in June 2020.

TravelBank and U.S. Bank teamed up three months later, and the addition of an integrated payment tool to the platform allowed the fintech to tighten spending and policy controls, and refine expense reporting,.

The deal also gave U.S. Bank access to myriad smaller clients that fall outside of the bank’s 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," Duke Chung, TravelBank's CEO, said in a statement. "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.

"We are focused on giving businesses more confidence, control and convenience in managing payments and expenses," Kotwal said. "TravelBank will help us accelerate these efforts."