Payment Observatory May 2024

Highlights of the month

Payment Infrastructure & Support - Visa continues to innovate and focuses on Open-Banking

1. UNITED STATES - Visa deploys Visa Open Banking Solutions in the US market
2. INTERNATIONAL - Visa unveils several new products, including Visa Flexible Credential
3. INTERNATIONAL - Worldline and Visa launch virtual card solution for online travel agencies

Visa has acquired Tink, a European fintech, in 2021 to roll out Visa Open Banking Solutions in the US, a less-regulated market dominated by Plaid. The collaboration aims to develop open banking solutions, including account verification, balance verification and banking transaction harmonization, to make open banking more accessible in the US.

Visa is also launching Visa Flexible Credential, a feature that allows customers to choose different sources of funding during a transaction, as part of a program to strengthen its presence in digital payments.

Worldline and Visa have also collaborated to introduce a virtual card solution for online travel agencies, responding to growing market demand. This initiative optimizes cash flow and strengthens Worldline's position in the travel agency payments market. Analysts forecast significant growth in online sales revenues in travel and tourism by 2028.

Digital currencies & Web 3 - Players want to facilitate access to digital currencies

1. UNITED STATES - Stripe and Avalanche partner to facilitate access to cryptos
2. INTERNATIONAL - Fipto facilitates stablecoin payments with Payment Links

Thanks to this collaboration between Stripe and Avalanche, users can now buy AVAX tokens directly via Stripe, without going through an exchange platform. Stripe supports fiat-crypto payments, debit and credit cards, and handles KYC, fraud, and compliance aspects. This integration aims to democratize access to the Avalanche ecosystem and solve problems for Web3 businesses by making it easier for new users to purchase cryptos. At present, this novelty is reserved for the US market.

For its part Fipto, a French blockchain-based B2B payment company, has launched Payment Links, a solution for collecting cryptocurrency payments. The service aims to overcome reluctance towards cryptos by enabling businesses to accept these currencies without being directly exposed to them. Payments in stablecoin are automatically converted into euros, facilitating international transactions and the integration of SMEs and e-merchants. Fipto offers this solution via payment links and an API, currently supporting USDT and USDC stablecoins on Ethereum and Polygon. The aim is to simplify the adoption of cryptos in B2B while meeting the growing needs of businesses for international transfers.