Visa

Merchants, banks, fintechs and card networks may crave digital payments' treasure trove of data over cash's simple anonymity, but any weakness in a centralized ecosystem threatens the entire network, as Visa learned late last week.

Supermarkets and other retailers reported rejected transactions after a network glitch, causing some to quickly deploy cash-only checkouts.

Visa has put its marketing and advertising featuring actor Morgan Freeman on hold following allegations of inappropriate behavior.

YellowPepper's strategic investment from Visa as part of a $12.5 million Series D funding round gives the company a chance to expand beyond its focus on Latin America and into new markets such as Europe and Asia.

When Visa opened its tools to third-party developers two years ago, it was a strong pivot away from a longstanding of operating a closed, proprietary network. Its latest investments indicate this strategy is of growing importance on a global scale.

Avoiding repeating past mistakes will not be enough. Visa, Mastercard, Amex and Discover need to bring some added value that could trump PayPal’s already end-user-friendly solutions, writes Adriana iordan, vice president of product management for 2Checkout.

Visa Canada plans to offer real-time B2B and B2C disbursements via its Visa Direct card-to-card transfer service, competing head-on with Canada's Interac network and a product Mastercard launched in the country earlier this year.

Despite Canada's high penetration of contactless POS terminals and consumer affinity for the technology, the country has lagged behind nations such as the U.K. and Singapore in contactless payments. That is set to change as Canada's transit schemes launch contactless open-payment systems.

Details are still scarce about how the payment networks’ universal checkout "button" will look, but each participant will have some branding representation.

The bank said it kept fee rebates that should have gone to a small pension fund; some women say the company's “bro” culture hinders their advancement.