American payment corporation Visa has decided to close its open banking division in the US due to regulatory uncertainty and banks’ intentions to introduce fees for access to customer data. A division that provided fintech companies and other firms with the ability to obtain users’ banking information has ceased operations. This is reported by Finextra.
Instead of the American market, Visa will focus on Europe and Latin America. The decision to leave the US is connected with changes in regulatory policy after the new administration of Donald Trump came to power.
Last October, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) adopted a final rule on rights of access to personal financial data that gave Americans the ability to demand that banks share their financial information with third parties. However, in May of this year, under the new administration, the CFPB rescinded this rule. The Financial Technology Association called such a decision “a gift to Wall Street banks”.
At the same time, large banks began to prepare for the introduction of commissions for access to customer data. In particular, JP Morgan plans to charge companies that want to receive information from their users’ bank accounts.
At the same time, Visa announced the expansion of the Click to Pay online payment service to the markets of the Asia-Pacific region. Major payment operators 2C2P, Adyen, AsiaPay and Worldpay have joined the cooperation, which will allow the technology to be spread among a wider range of banks and merchants.
