Visa Buys Plaid • Hacker News Board

Re: Visa Buys Plaid

#21

Post by loganfrederick » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 9:48 PM UTC

brunoTbear wrote: post #17

tempsy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No offense to Visa, but I don't think of them as the most innovative organization Visa is a $434B company. I guess "innovative" is subjective but their valuation trajectory has looked like a high growth tech co over the past 5 years.

That's fair. 3x valuation growth in the last 5 years is tech company level. More or less the same trajectory as GOOG and FB. It's not Stripe or Airbnb level growth, however.

Harder to have the same growth rate coming from a much higher base (already being worth about $100 billion five years ago)

Re: Visa Buys Plaid

#22

Post by vichu » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 9:48 PM UTC

Looks like it's official: https://blog.plaid.com/plaid-and-visa/

Re: Visa Buys Plaid

#23

Post by loeber » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 9:49 PM UTC

brunoTbear wrote: post #3

Will be interesting to see the terms for the acquisition and see if Mary Meeker's last investment for KP was a winner or not! I'm cautiously optimistic for a good outcome for the Plaid folks here: last round was two years ago for $250M. Could they have been suffering $10M/month losses and are running out of money? Could be. No offense to Visa, but I don't think of them as the most innovative organization or one that…

Looks like the acquisition price is $5.3 billion[0], so it looks like it's a real winner for its investors.

[0] https://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/Visa+%28V%29+to...

Re: Visa Buys Plaid

#24

Post by eerrt » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 9:50 PM UTC

Do the early employees get a huge payout on their options?

Re: Visa Buys Plaid

#25

Post by HeavenFox » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 9:51 PM UTC

throwaway13000 wrote: post #4

So, pertinent question. I want to move my account to a bank which gives me an API so I don't have to deal with Plaid or Mint. I.e. I want data privacy. I want to build a personal dashboard of where my money is going. Any suggestions?

In theory, you could use OFX, which is an open standard that powers the "Download transaction" feature of Quicken/MS Money

In practice, banks never tell you the address of their OFX server and you have to rely on community compiled database (eg ofxhome); many banks' implementations are iffy; some banks even charge you for enabling OFX support on your account. In the end it's just so much easier to outsource this to Plaid, which is why they are a billion dollar business.

Re: Visa Buys Plaid

#26

Post by Nextgrid » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 9:51 PM UTC

objclxt wrote: post #15

throwaway13000 wrote: post #4

So, pertinent question. I want to move my account to a bank which gives me an API so I don't have to deal with Plaid or Mint. I.e. I want data privacy. I want to build a personal dashboard of where my money is going. Any suggestions?

> Any suggestions? Lobby your lawmakers. Banks have no incentive to provide open APIs. For example, in the UK banks did nothing until they were forced to - the market regulator now requires the nine largest banks to provide an open API ( https://www.openbanking.org.uk ).

Open Banking is a sham. It mandates account access for "AISPs" which need to be registered, audited, etc which is unfeasible for a solo developer especially when releasing a free/open-source product. Worse, it doesn't actually mandate your access to your own account, so that still depends on the bank. The modern banks provided APIs even before open banking so we're good, but the legacy ones still don't provide personal APIs.

Re: Visa Buys Plaid

#27

Post by Nextgrid » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 9:52 PM UTC

throwaway13000 wrote: post #4

So, pertinent question. I want to move my account to a bank which gives me an API so I don't have to deal with Plaid or Mint. I.e. I want data privacy. I want to build a personal dashboard of where my money is going. Any suggestions?

In the UK I'd suggest Monzo or Starling Bank.

Re: Visa Buys Plaid

#28

Post by lowercased » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 9:52 PM UTC

eerrt wrote: post #24

Do the early employees get a huge payout on their options?

Perhaps they'll just get visa gift cards... ;)

Re: Visa Buys Plaid

#29

Post by sithadmin » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 9:54 PM UTC

cowpig wrote: post #18

Why is a duopoly like Visa/Mastercard allowed to make acquisitions in its own space?

It's not a duopoly? In the US, AMEX and Discover aren't that difficult to use, and a fair amount of retailers accept in-house credit accounts and international creditors like JCB and UnionPay. Payment via debit networks is still very common, and low-tech forms of payment such as cash and checks are still acceptable in many use cases.

Re: Visa Buys Plaid

#30

Post by texasbigdata » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 9:54 PM UTC

brunoTbear wrote: post #17

tempsy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No offense to Visa, but I don't think of them as the most innovative organization Visa is a $434B company. I guess "innovative" is subjective but their valuation trajectory has looked like a high growth tech co over the past 5 years.

That's fair. 3x valuation growth in the last 5 years is tech company level. More or less the same trajectory as GOOG and FB. It's not Stripe or Airbnb level growth, however.

% or $'s? You can't eat a percentage.