Plaid is moving into the payments business, with a new program that would make it easier for consumers to make digital payments from their bank accounts.
Plaid, which connects users' bank accounts with fintech applications, has signed up more than 50 partners that will be involved in moving money from bank accounts, including Square, Stripe, Silicon Valley Bank, and SoFi's Galileo unit. The companies using Plaid's new service would offer consumers an option to pay via bank, alongside credit card or other payments methods.
Plaid told the WSJ that this product isn't meant to be a competitor to credit or debit card payments, and could be used for things that don't use typically use cards, such as remittances or invoice payments.
However, younger consumers have moved away from credit cards in recent years, in favor of other forms of payment such as "buy now, pay later" services. And merchants generally dislike the fees that credit cards charge, so easier bank payments could appeal to merchants as well. Pricing for the new product wasn't immediately clear.
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE