Visa Moves to Counter Emerging Payment Competition Posted by AVCU on 10:11 AM

More and more news headlines report emerging payment systems that plan to circumvent traditional payment networks like VISA and MasterCard, both of which area used extensively by credit unions. The 10/29 edition of  American Banker reports on moves by VISA that amount to its emerging efforts to counter these new competitors.

In July Visa purchased CyberSource Corporation to gain new tools for its counter offensive in e-commerce and mobile payments. Through DeviceFidelity it also put Visa payment capabilities in mobile phones through a microSD data card that consumers can install themselves. All of this comes as PayPal unveils multiple new initiatives to expand its own influence in mobile payments.

Last week, VISA said it would allocate more resources to Authorize.Net, its existing platform for third-party developers, which was part of the CyberSource purchase. VISA argues that its mobile strategy goes beyond what PayPal, a unit of eBay Inc., has done with Bling Nation, which offers a contactless payment sticker to put on phones for swiping of purchases.  

The article reports some analysts views that VISA will win the mobile payments war in spite of aggressive competition from entities like PayPal and Bling Nation. Those views are based on the belief that the easiest thing for consumers to do is use what they already have, which is a VISA branded card, just in a new way.

In related news, Visa reports card payments volume of 14% last year, with a 16% in crease in processed transactions and a 13% rise in revenues. In spite of its financial success, VISA's stock was down 4.34% to $76.45/share at the end of business on Thursday. 

Read the article in entirety.