Visa

Companies such as Visa and Mastercard, as well as banks and retailers, are stepping up their investments in artificial intelligence to reach small businesses and spot new uses.

Visa said Chairman Al Kelly, the payments giant's former chief executive officer, will leave the board in January.

As false credit-card disputes spike, the networks have updated policies to provide merchants and issuers with more data to combat false chargebacks.

In search of new revenue streams, the card network has researched companies' working-capital and cash-flow headaches to see where it could play a bigger role.

The firm's investors include Visa and PayPal, as well as the Teacher Retirement System of Texas

Visa and its rivals have seen spending increases cool with inflation soaring to once-in-a-generation levels.

The use cases for non-fungible tokens for consumer loyalty, gaming and other business purposes are expanding, while banks and payment companies step up their NFT experiments.

Twenty companies have joined the “Visa Ready” list of suppliers offering streamlined connections to installment loans online and at the point of sale.

Financial institutions are confronting major compliance challenges given the demands of Russian sanctions as well as the explosion of online gaming transactions and marijuana sales.

Visa is planning a raft of changes to rules for gas stations to allow larger transactions after a surge in fuel prices across the U.S. made it hard for some drivers to fill up using credit cards.

The pandemic brought a flood of digital transactions to Visa's network. Fraudsters tried to take advantage, but "It’s my team’s job to be a step ahead of the bad guys," said Kelly, the card network's global head of risk strategy.

The card brands have blocked Russia's large banks from their networks in response to the Ukraine invasion, a move that may dramatically limit retail transactions and cash availability at ATMs.

The e-commerce giant is adding a surcharge for Visa credit card payments in Singapore. It's a tactic reminiscent of the time its big-box rival outright banned the card brand in Thunder Bay, Ontario, in a bid to lower its costs.

The card brand's recent deals to buy Tink and Currencycloud for a combined $3 billion are meant to give it a stronger presence in fast-growing fintech markets.

Buying the cross-border payment and software company can help the card brand provide more services to fast-growing challenger banks.

The card brand's spots will focus less on credit cards and more on real-time payroll, cryptocurrency and mobile commerce.

The technology holds great promise for financial services, but it could be just as powerful for scammers looking to break payment card encryption. Visa, Mastercard and others are already building new defenses.

The card brand is working with 70 cryptocurrency companies to meet consumer demand for paying in bitcoin and other digital currencies at the point of sale. It had little choice given that most retailers don't accept crypto directly and are in no rush to do so.

The company’s Tap to Phone technology exists in 30 countries. Visa is piloting the program in the U.S. with a six-city campaign that brings discounts, offers and grants to Black-owned small businesses.

U.S. regulators blocked the card network's attempt to buy Plaid last year for antitrust reasons. Its bid to acquire Tink, a similar company based in Sweden, may have a better shot given European officials' desire to promote open banking.