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Visa’s Plan B: Buy Tink

Hello and welcome to Protocol | Fintech! This Friday: Visa buys a Swedish startup, bringing humans back to finance, and Chainalysis's lofty new $4.2 billion valuation.
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Visa's not giving up that easily.
Five months after its $5.3 billion bid to buy Plaid collapsed, the payments giant is making another bold acquisition in a critical area. Visa's $2.2 billion purchase of Swedish banking-tech startup Tink underlines that it's determined to expand its tech arsenal to take on the fast-growing trend of open banking.
Tink's data access technology is the draw for Visa. Buying Tink would help Visa become a stronger competitor with technology that provides banks and fintechs easier and broader access to consumer financial data.
Visa wants to defend itself against disruptors. Cutting-edge data-access technology has become an important capability in the battle over open banking where Visa is up against longtime rivals, led by Mastercard, and smaller, nimbler, faster-moving startups.
Will Visa get a break from regulators this time? Crane thinks the company may be "less vulnerable to antitrust scrutiny" in Europe where it could find "an easier regulatory path." One thing that could help would be Kelly sticking to platitudes about innovation. The DOJ cited his characterization of the Plaid deal as an "insurance policy" meant to remove a "threat to our U.S. debit business" in suing to block the merger.
— Ben Pimentel
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The House shot down "true lender" rule. Lawmakers voted to repeal the controversial OCC rule regarding how nonbank fintechs can partner with banks, following the Senate's lead.
Robinhood is calling for sub-penny pricing. The online broker jumped into the debate on pricing and execution, saying that letting exchanges quote ever-smaller fractional prices, as market makers can in off-exchange trades, would "level the playing field."
Andreessen Horowitz's crypto bets are growing. The venture capital fund raised another $2.2 billion for a third crypto fund.
El Salvador's bitcoin plan hit a snag. The Central American nation's bitcoin partner doesn't have the necessary money transmitter licenses required in most U.S. states.
What are you most excited about in fintech?
Accessibility. Companies are taking intimidating, daunting processes, and making them consumer-friendly and easy to use. It's connecting people all over the world in seconds and giving businesses opportunities to grow that weren't there just a few years ago. Now, you can trade stocks, open a bank account or get a mortgage with a click of a button — and understand what you're doing in a way that used to be a mystery. The fintech world is really challenging the traditional veiled tactics of 100-year-old banks, and it's not hard to see why consumers are flocking to these new avenues for their needs.
What in fintech do you think needs to be fixed?
While the near-instantaneous connection is my favorite thing in fintech, the complete removal of human interaction needs to be examined in some cases. My partners and I believe in making each touchpoint with consumers the best it can be, and sometimes that means keeping human interaction intact. Situations like digging into why a borrower may not qualify for a mortgage or loan or solving an issue with a product or service can't be completely replaced by AI. Plus, consumers appreciate the personalized service in those cases and are more likely to remember the interaction and recommend or come back to your company.
What fintech trend are you most worried about?
This doesn't just affect fintech, but keeping cybersecurity up to date as it relates to transacting online. We're collecting a lot of personal data, and as fintech becomes more widely used, our users become targets. Some may be using these tools for the first time ever and fall victim to scams simply because they don't know what's legitimate or not. Or companies may become lax or complacent in their security measures. So I think it's a two-pronged approach where we're educating our users and staying diligent with a proactive approach on our own security measures. It's vital to the credibility of our world that we take this seriously and protect our users.
Recently, Micron announced new memory and storage innovations across its portfolio based on its industry-leading 176-layer NAND and 1α (1-alpha) DRAM technology. But what does "1α" mean, and just how amazing is it?
That's the percent of mortgages originated with nonbank mortgage lenders in 2020, up from 58.9% — the highest nonbank market share on record.
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