What is Visa's role in open finance and open banking?
Visa's open banking business runs mainly through Tink, the Swedish platform it acquired on March 10, 2022, after its $5.3 billion deal for U.S. aggregator Plaid was abandoned in January 2021 following a Justice Department antitrust suit. At completion Tink was integrated with more than 3,400 banks and financial institutions; Visa's FY2025 10-K says it has since reached thousands of bank connections and uses Tink to deliver Visa-branded account-to-account products in regions such as Europe and Latin America. In the UK, Visa A2A brings rules, a liability and dispute framework and the 'Secured by Visa' trustmark to pay by bank; it was ready for market on June 2, 2025, and on November 19, 2025 Kroo Bank, Utilita and Tink completed the first commercial variable recurring payment through it over Faster Payments. Visa also sells fraud scoring for account-to-account payments: A2A Protect, which Visa says increased fraud detection by 75% in its first six months. In the U.S., Chief Product and Strategy Officer Jack Forestell said in May 2024 that Visa was ready to launch pay by bank with pilot customers, but in August 2025 American Banker, citing Bloomberg, reported that Visa had at least paused its U.S. open banking product. CEO Ryan McInerney had said in July 2025 that Visa was focusing open banking on Europe and Latin America. Visa does not disclose Tink revenue, Visa A2A volumes or open banking payment counts.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
Data as of Oct 22, 2026 · Visa profile updated Oct 22, 2026 · 12 sources cited on this page · 52 fintechs profiled on this site · Markdown
How has Visa's open banking strategy developed?
| Move | What the record shows | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Plaid deal abandoned | Visa ended its $5.3 billion takeover of Plaid two months after the Justice Department sued; the DOJ cited Visa's then-CEO calling the deal an "insurance policy" against a "threat to our important US debit business" | January 12, 2021[2] |
| Tink acquisition completed | Tink, integrated with more than 3,400 banks and financial institutions, lets customers move money, access aggregated financial data and use risk insights and account verification through a single API | March 10, 2022[1] |
| U.S. pay by bank readied | Jack Forestell said Visa had built bank connectivity and agreements with banks and processors, signed pilot customers and was "ready to go" to launch pay by bank in the U.S. | May 21, 2024 (reported May 28)[7] |
| Visa A2A ready for UK market | Pay by bank with card-like protections and dispute rules, settling through Pay.UK's Faster Payment System | June 2, 2025[4] |
| Focus narrowed | McInerney said Visa was focusing open banking on the markets with the greatest potential, such as Europe and Latin America; in Brazil, Visa Connecta uses Tink technology to initiate open banking payments over Pix | July 29, 2025[9] |
| U.S. retreat reported | American Banker, citing Bloomberg, reported Visa was at least pausing its U.S. open banking product, as the CFPB rewrote its 1033 rule and JPMorganChase considered charging fees to data aggregators | August 26, 2025[8] |
| First Visa A2A cVRP | Kroo Bank, Utilita and Tink completed the first commercial variable recurring payment through Visa A2A, an energy bill paid over Faster Payments, ahead of the UK rollout | November 19, 2025[5] |
Which open banking and account-to-account products does Visa offer?
| Product | What it does | Status or figure | Source date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tink data access | Account verification, balance checks and personal finance management | Thousands of bank connections as of September 30, 2025 | FY2025 10-K[3] |
| Tink payment initiation | Account-to-account transactions and seller payments, delivered as Visa-branded A2A products in regions such as Europe and Latin America | No volumes disclosed | FY2025 10-K[3] |
| Visa A2A (UK) | Visa supplies the operating model, liability and dispute framework, user experience guidelines and 'Secured by Visa' trustmark for open banking payments, starting with cVRPs | First commercial transaction November 19, 2025; launched in fiscal 2025 per the 10-K | 2025[5][3] |
| Visa Protect for A2A, now A2A Protect | Real-time fraud scoring for non-card payments; found 54% of fraud in a 2024 Pay.UK pilot; Visa says detection rose 75% in the first six months | Unified Featurespace-based score launched September 1, 2026 | 2024–2026[10][6] |
| Visa Protect for A2A on Pix | Real-time fraud monitoring that McInerney said could reduce fraud on Brazil's Pix for bank partners | Described on the Q4 2025 call | October 28, 2025[11] |
How does regulation shape Visa's open banking business, and what is not disclosed?
Visa's FY2025 10-K treats open banking as both opportunity and threat. It says PSD2 requires financial institution clients to give account access rights to non-bank players, that Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong and Mexico are granting or considering similar access rights, and that real-time payment networks in at least 80 countries are an alternative to card schemes.[3]
The same filing describes Visa's response: capture account-to-account payments through card-enabled flows, deliver Visa-branded A2A products through Tink, and offer value-added services such as fraud scoring to local payment methods on account-to-account and real-time networks.[3]
In the U.S., American Banker's August 2025 report quoted analysts linking Visa's pause to regulatory uncertainty over the CFPB's 1033 rule and possible bank data-access fees, and IDC's Aaron Press saying "Visa has not made significant inroads in bank data access compared to its competitors." Visa did not return American Banker's request for comment.[8]
What is not disclosed: Tink revenue or customer counts, Visa A2A transaction volumes and participating banks, the status of the U.S. pay-by-bank pilots announced in 2024, and Visa's position in the CFPB's 2025 reconsideration of the 1033 rule.[3][7][8]
What does the Visa profile record on this topic?
The rows below are the entries of the Visa AI strategy profile that bear on this page, as of Oct 22, 2026; the profile holds the full record of 17 dated moves, 11 use cases and 24 sources.
| Use case | What the record shows | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| A2A Protect (with Featurespace) | Real-time risk scoring for account-to-account payments using transfer learning and network-level signals; Visa says it increased fraud detection by 75% in the first six months of deployment, and the September 2026 version adds a unified Featurespace-based score with plain-language alert explanations. | In production | [6] |
| Date | Move | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 1, 2026 | A2A Protect adds first Featurespace-based unified score | Visa launches an enhanced A2A Protect with a unified fraud score, its first in-market integration of Featurespace technology; each alert carries a plain-language explanation of why a payment was flagged. | [6] |
| Dec 19, 2024 | Featurespace acquisition completes | Visa completes its acquisition of Featurespace, a Cambridge, UK developer of real-time AI payments-protection technology, folding it into the Risk and Identity Solutions unit. Visa's FY2025 10-K puts the purchase consideration at $946 million. | [12][3] |
Does Visa own Tink?
Yes. Visa completed its acquisition of Tink, a Swedish open banking platform, on March 10, 2022; at the time Tink was integrated with more than 3,400 banks and financial institutions. Visa's FY2025 10-K says Tink has reached thousands of bank connections and powers Visa-branded account-to-account products in regions such as Europe and Latin America.
Why didn't Visa buy Plaid?
Visa and Plaid abandoned their planned $5.3 billion merger on January 12, 2021, about two months after the Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit. The DOJ argued the deal could eliminate a nascent competitive threat to Visa's debit business, citing Visa's then-CEO describing it as an insurance policy.
Did Visa leave U.S. open banking?
American Banker reported on August 26, 2025, citing Bloomberg, that Visa was at least pausing its U.S. open banking product while continuing in other markets. Visa did not comment to American Banker; a month earlier McInerney had said Visa was focusing open banking on markets with the most potential, such as Europe and Latin America.
What is Visa A2A?
Visa A2A is Visa's open model for account-to-account payments in the UK, adding card-like consumer protections, a liability and dispute framework and the 'Secured by Visa' trustmark to pay by bank over Faster Payments. The first commercial variable recurring payment through it, an energy bill, was completed on November 19, 2025.
How large is Visa's open banking business?
Visa does not say. Its FY2025 10-K reports thousands of Tink bank connections but no Tink revenue, customer counts or payment volumes, and Visa has not published Visa A2A transaction numbers. The only dated performance figures are for A2A Protect fraud scoring, which Visa says raised detection by 75% in its first six months.
- Visa Completes Acquisition of Tink
- Visa abandons takeover of Plaid after DOJ raises antitrust concerns
- Visa Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025
- Visa brings Smarter Pay by Bank with Built-In Consumer Protections to the UK Market
- First Visa A2A transaction completed in the UK with partners Kroo Bank, Utilita and Tink
- Visa Launches Enhanced A2A Protect Innovations to Help Financial Institutions Stop Fraud Before Money Leaves Accounts
- Visa preps for US pay-by-bank services
- The fallout from Visa's U.S. open banking retreat
- Visa (V) Q3 2025 earnings call transcript
- Visa's new AI tool for Faster Payments could help save UK over £330m a year on fraud and APP scams
- Visa (V) Q4 2025 earnings call transcript
- Visa Completes Acquisition of Featurespace
When Visa moves on AI, you'll read it here first.
when a bank, fintech or regulator moves on AI, it is in the next morning's brief · six sourced stories · 7 am PT · free
plus every regulation, bank and agent page update, the morning after · leave any morning