The termination could delay Visa's entry into open banking in the US, which likely stings even more as Mastercard sails into the space with its purchase of data aggregator startup Finicity. The DOJ the $825 million acquisition in November, an unsurprising move given Mastercard's much smaller share of the online debit market.
Finicity's open banking prowess will allow Mastercard to offer its customers greater control over usage of their data, its open banking platform, and provide more financial services options. With the Plaid deal off the table, Visa will have to find another means of doing the same. The DOJ's apparent distaste toward the idea of an open banking giant will perpetuate the fragmented US open banking environment—leaving the door open for regulators to implement a standardized approach.
Consumers' access to financial data sharing in the US has largely depended on private-sector efforts. For example, Plaid is a member of the Financial Data Exchange, a 168-member financial industry