Visa

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.

Across the globe, many different populations have distinct reasons for being unbanked. To reach these audiences, mainstream financial companies are discovering approaches that wouldn't be possible in the U.S.

Visa and Mastercard's "single button" for online payments seems like it would most directly threaten PayPal, but the card networks' campaign puts just as much pressure on Amazon's omnichannel push.

Visa CEO Alfred Kelly is less publicly adversarial toward market rival PayPal than his predecessor Charlie Scharf, even as Visa's push for a "single button" for online payments seems to undermine PayPal's business model.

Spending on Visa Inc. debit cards — the favored plastic of the younger set — continues to grow at a faster clip than on credit.