Visa has taken several recent steps to expand its digital payment capabilities, adding Walmart and other merchants to its Visa Checkout network and upgrading its technology to support payments via connected devices.
Processing Content
It's now reportedly taking a much more direct route by incenting restaurants to use digital payments exclusively. The Wall Street Journal reports Visa will shortly announce a plan to pay small merchants to upgrade their payment technology to support digital payments.
Visa Inc. credit and debit cards are arranged for a photograph in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014. Visa Inc. is expected to release earnings data on Jan. 30. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
But in return, the businesses, which the newspaper reports will be smaller merchants, must stop taking cash.
It's a dramatic step, but a carrot and stick approach to ditching paper money is gaining steam.
Several cities in China have gone cashless, or at least have issued strong incentives to use digital payments over paper money. And most famously, the Indian government last year pulled about 85% of the country's paper money out of circulation to push the country into digital payments, citing security.
John Adams is executive editor of payments for American Banker. John interviews top executives in the payments, cryptocurrency and fintech... Read full bio
The Federal Communications Commission proposed a $4.5 million fine against Voxbeam Telecommunications, which it accused of facilitating fraud scams. Many of the calls spoofed phone numbers belonging to American banks.
After French authorities stopped a bomb plot against a Bank of America office in Paris, security experts warned banks to step up their preparations for terror attacks.