2019 was a busy time for the major card networks when it came to M&A, as they engaged in an escalating arms race of acquisitions of fintech firms, many of which were for billions of dollars. 

Visa this week may have made the latest and biggest splash of all, with its $5.3-billion acquisition of Plaid. Plaid, of course, provides the APIs that many fintechs use to connect to their users’ bank accounts. It powers many of the nation’s most popular consumer fintech services, such as Venmo and Robinhood. 

"Plaid’s developer-friendly approach – focused on API design, UI/UX, reliability, support, and documentation – helps it scale faster than its more established competitors, making it an attractive acquisition,” said Kalpesh Kapadia, CEO and co-founder of credit fintech Deserve. “Visa's desire to participate in the fintech developer community and the broader, global industry trend toward API-driven open banking makes this a strategic move."

Visa, along with its archrival Mastercard, were initial investors in Plaid, which was founded in 2012. With Plaid’s network now under the Visa umbrella, it’s clear the card service will look to make a play in the peer-to-peer payments space — possibly launching a service to rival Venmo or Zelle, the bank-owned payments network. We’ll be following this one closely.