Visa announced yesterday that it is acquiring the cross-border payment company Earthport.

The question is why?

The short of it is that the acquisition will allow Visa customers to securely send money to businesses, individuals and banks around the globe in real time. Visa customers already can send money via card, but Earthport will allow Visa customers to send payments directly from bank accounts via ACH, putting Visa more on the turf of banks.

“Visa is modernizing the way we move money by making it quicker, safer and easier to pay and be paid than ever before,” said Bill Sheley, head of global push payments at Visa, in a statement. “The acquisition of Earthport unleashes the power of Visa by taking us ‘beyond the card,’ empowering us to enable our clients to make payments through bank accounts around the world.”

Visa stressed the importance of the acquisition for its customers, who need to pay people in various countries around the world and are best not paying through cumbersome international wire transfers. Visa hopes the acquisition will ease B2B payments and help its client businesses simplify their payroll.

More payment companies are prioritizing innovation for business clients. In April, Visa partnered with Bento for Business, allowing small business customers with a Visa debit card to access Bento’s budgeting insight tools. “The SMB segment is a priority for Visa, and we continue to be an advocate for the 30 million SMBs in the United States,” said David Simon, Visa’s global head of small and medium enterprises, in a statement. Earlier this month, Mastercard added a variety of budget, tax and protection tools to its small business clients. 

Visa’s acquisition of Earthport marks the final chapter of a months-long bidding war between Visa and Mastercard. In December, Visa offered more than $250 million to buy Earthport. When Mastercard made a $305 million counteroffer in January, Visa responded with an offer of almost $320 million in February. Mastercard moved on from the bidding war in March to acquire global payment company Transfast.

Visa and Earthport did not release final terms of their transaction.