Digital Commerce Alliance Top 20 Women By Digital Commerce Alliance Since 2019, the Digital Commerce Alliance (DCA) has published a list of the top women in our industry. This year is no exception. For the fourth consecutive time, we are pleased to honor outstanding women in leadership positions at card-linking, banking, financial data, mobile wallet, digital advertising, fintech, payments and...

Almost a year to the day after Visa Inc. announced its intent to acquire Plaid, the two organizations announced they’re terminating the proposed transaction. The companies agreed with the DOJ to dismiss related litigation. CardLinx Insight: The termination of the deal indicates the high price that Visa and Plaid paid for pursuing a proposed deal that was perceived to run...

Visa’s plans to acquire financial technology startup Plaid Inc. were thwarted yesterday when the US Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit. The DOJ contends that Plaid, that powers Paypal’s Venmo and other payment apps, competes with Visa, and that the $5.3 billion acquisition would create a monopoly in online debit leading to higher prices and discouraging industry innovation. CardLinx Insight:...

Mastercard announced its intent to acquire financial technology company Finicity to advance its API and financial data strategy. The acquisition is intended to strengthen the payment card giant’s relationships with consumers and businesses by giving them more control over their financial data. CardLinx Insight: Mastercard’s move to acquire Finicity follows a similar one made by arch-rival Visa when it acquired...

Figg Uses CLO to Help Consumers Brave Recession Augeo, a St. Paul digital engagement company and card-linked technology provider to banks, announced it has acquired Empyr, the San Diego-based company that powers the Yelp card-linked offer program, among other leading publisher platforms. The two Cardlinx members will do business as Figg, with more than 60 million linked cards and $300...

Plaid, the company acquired by Visa for $5.3 billion, was sued in a class action alleging it harvested consumer transaction data without permission. The law suit states “Plaid uses that access to deceptively obtain bank account information from users, accessing information back up to five years, averaging 3,700 transactions per consumer.” CardLinx Insight: The law suit alleges a fear many...

2020’s Silver Bullet for Bank Digital Engagement: Card-Linked Offers If you are a bank serving consumers or a payment card issuer considering ways to drive mobile and digital engagement while adding value for merchants, you are likely considering card-linked offers (CLO). Linking your customer’s mobile app to a payment card or mobile wallet saves consumers money, boosts retailer revenue–and drives...

ChaseVisa announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire financial data aggregator Plaid for $5.3 billion. Plaid’s investors include Visa, MasterCard and American Express, among others. Unlike most card-linked data providers who source consumer financial data through secure APIs from banks and payment networks, Plaid relies on a consumer entering their online banking user name and password into a...

TakeMe Pay combines the biggest payment services in the world into one app CardLinx member Japan Foodie (www.japanfoodie.jp) is well-known as a multi-payment service mainly for the restaurant industry in Japan. When tourists visit Japan whether they are from China or the US, they can use the Japan Foodie app on their smartphone to make a reservation, order off the menu...

Advocacy Groups Call for Facebook’s Break Up Nine advocacy groups have called the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the break up of Facebook in light of its consumer data breaches, especially with Cambridge Analytica. The recommendation includes spinning off Instagram and WhatsApp. The letter urged the FTC to regulate Facebook like a utility given its size, position and influence in...

US-based Visa and Mastercard face additional headwinds in entering the Chinese market. According to FT, China’s central bank known as the People’s Bank of China declined to acknowledge Visa and Mastercard’s applications to process renminbi payments. Sources claim their applications were submitted over a year ago and according to application procedures published in 2017, applications must be decided within 90...