The financial services industry has changed dramatically in the 70 years since the credit card was invented. Companies like PayPal and Stripe enable businesses to accept payments from customers around the world, while Square’s Reader has turned countless tablets and smartphones into payment-processing devices. Mobile payments are also on the rise, although adoption in the United States has been slower than in India and China. Credit card companies aren’t sitting on the sidelines as technology firms reshape the financial services industry. Mastercard, American Express and Visa are all actively monitoring the trends and technologies in fintech and experimenting with their products and features to ensure they meet the needs of digitally native consumers and companies. We recently spoke with leaders at these companies to learn more about the trends and tech making the biggest impacts on their businesses.
Mastercard has plugged directly into the global fintech startup ecosystem. Since 2014 the company has run Start Path, a startup engagement and corporate innovation program. According to Mastercard, 220 companies have completed the program since it launched, with alumni raising a collective $2.6 billion in funding. Like Mastercard, American Express has also established its own innovation lab. Amex Digital Labs was launched in 2017 to ideate and test new products and features. Like many companies, Visa is extremely bullish on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Visa will still be invested in AI and machine learning long after the tech industry has found a new technology to transform into a buzzword. Despite being founded decades before the term “fintech” was coined, Mastercard, American Express and Visa are all taking a more active role in shaping the industry’s future through their work with startups and emerging technologies.