March 30, 2021
Visa Inc. and fintech startup
Plaid recently called off their proposed $5.3 billion merger. In the digital payments realm, the news was greeted by cheers and jeers. Sure, some unicorn dreams got dashed with follow-on floodgates now seemingly switched off. But ultimately competition should flourish.
And even assuming Visa,
MasterCard, American Express, PayPal and
Square collectively capture the lion’s share of the transaction facilitation market, its sheer enormity still commands attention.
Take B2B payments: an estimated $120 trillion changes hands per year globally. With sums like that at stake – and considering the momentum of the past two years – fintech’s payments-related realms should expect to experience a flurry of activity in 2021.