Square just found a replacement for high-profile CFO Sarah Friar but is facing another big hole in its leadership team as head of payments Mary Kay Bowman leaves for Visa.
Bowman will be head of seller solutions at Visa, where she will lead design, development and delivery of services that will “transform the payment experience for both sellers and consumers,” Visa said in its announcement, adding this work is critical as the point of sale shifts from payment acceptance to digital cross-channel payment experiences.
The Square Inc. Point of Sale application is displayed for a photograph on an Apple Inc. iPhone in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Feb. 16, 2018. Square Inc. is expected to release earnings figures on February 27. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Visa has reported a dramatic migration toward contactless and digital transactions, which create opportunities to build marketing and ancillary services on top of payments, but also pose challenges since this migration is not exclusive to Visa and thus attracts mobile-driven competitors.
As this trend accelerates and alternative merchant acquirers continue to diversify, Visa will likely expand its token service to attract cross-channel partners and continue to push its “buy button,” a Visa/Mastercard-driven initiative to create a single experience for digital commerce.
Square has also been diversifying to stake out a position in a rapidly evolving merchant acquiring market, but is presently faced with the loss of two people in leadership roles. Square hired Bowman in 2015, a move that was considered a coup for Square since Bowman had helped run Amazon Local Register, the e-commerce giant’s effort to counter Square’s mobile point of sale business.
Square also recently lost Friar, considered one of CEO Jack Dorsey’s top lieutenants. Square earlier this month hired former Activision exec Amrita Ahuja to replace Friar, who took a job as CEO of Nextdoor.
Data suggests that the beleaguered commercial real estate market isn't going to get worse. And now that banks have had time to build reserves, any losses they do take shouldn't be disastrous, analysts say.
The American Fintech Council publicly declared support for California SB 69, which would require "internal expertise" for artificial intelligence regulation.
Four years after its launch, the Mission Driven Bank Fund has ended its fundraising well short of its original $500 million target. Still, organizers are hopeful that the fund's performance will attract other investors to the sector.
U.S. Bank's merchant acquiring unit has expanded its partnership with embedded finance fintech Liberis to offer its small business clients working capital loans.The two companies previously offered loans in the U.K., Ireland and Poland.
Legal experts say President Trump's unprecedented move to fire Cook over alleged past misconduct will likely be hashed out in court, but there is little precedent to determine whether a sitting board governor can be removed for past actions.
