Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Justice Department Sues to Block Visa's Proposed Acquisition of Plaid

justice.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 119 posts

Re: Justice Department Sues to Block Visa's Proposed Acquisition of Plaid

#71

Post by peteretep »

nobody9999 wrote: post #20

I was struck by this bit: 'If Plaid remained free to develop its competing payment platform, then “Visa may be forced to accept lower margins or not have a competitive offering."' My understanding is that Plaid would/could charge significantly less (up to 50% less) than Visa currently does. And that's the value of competition . Not necessarily as a race to the bottom (as we've seen in the airline industry, but that's…

The only problem with the “race to the bottom” with airlines is the lack of tools to allow easy comparison of like with like, which in turn means airlines don’t (yet) have many different sized seats and service levels on a plane.

One day we’ll see flight aggregators that allow you to specify how much luggage you have, how tall you are, what kind of seat you want, if you want a decent meal, etc, and will give you a unified seat price.

Re: Justice Department Sues to Block Visa's Proposed Acquisition of Plaid

#72

Post by ukd1 »

MaxGabriel wrote: post #58
zelly wrote: post #49

Plaid is more of a monopoly than Visa is. Plaid is literally the only way to do ACH without microdeposit verification. There is no reason Plaid should have a monopoly on this. If banks opened up APIs for bank account verification, then anyone could compete with Plaid. As usual the Justice Department doesn't know what they're talking about.

Fwiw there are competitor services to Plaid, like Finicity

or https://teller.io

Re: Justice Department Sues to Block Visa's Proposed Acquisition of Plaid

#73

Post by cstejerean »

warent wrote: post #25
nobody9999 wrote: post #20

I was struck by this bit: 'If Plaid remained free to develop its competing payment platform, then “Visa may be forced to accept lower margins or not have a competitive offering."' My understanding is that Plaid would/could charge significantly less (up to 50% less) than Visa currently does. And that's the value of competition . Not necessarily as a race to the bottom (as we've seen in the airline industry, but that's…

I'm curious to hear more about the airline race to the bottom you're talking about. I've been flying once or twice a year for the last 7 years or so, and it's all pretty much been the same except perhaps a lot more addons and bagging fees. Were airlines very different in the past?

Yes. But much longer ago than 7 years. Seats have been getting closer together both in terms of less leg room and reduced seat width. Food has been all but eliminated from economy.

To see the continued slide take a look at basic economy and carriers like Spirit (to which basic economy is a response to). No assigned seats, no carry on bags, no drinks on the plane. They’d offer standing room only and charge for the restroom if they could get away with it.

Re: Justice Department Sues to Block Visa's Proposed Acquisition of Plaid

#74

Post by stevenhuang »

pbalau wrote: post #61
travisoneill1 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't a race to the bottom the best possible thing that could happen to transaction fees?

No, because then you end up with someone like Amazon underpricing everyone out.

How does that follow?

Re: Justice Department Sues to Block Visa's Proposed Acquisition of Plaid

#75

Post by lostlogin »

peteretep wrote: post #71
nobody9999 wrote: post #20

I was struck by this bit: 'If Plaid remained free to develop its competing payment platform, then “Visa may be forced to accept lower margins or not have a competitive offering."' My understanding is that Plaid would/could charge significantly less (up to 50% less) than Visa currently does. And that's the value of competition . Not necessarily as a race to the bottom (as we've seen in the airline industry, but that's…

The only problem with the “race to the bottom” with airlines is the lack of tools to allow easy comparison of like with like, which in turn means airlines don’t (yet) have many different sized seats and service levels on a plane. One day we’ll see flight aggregators that allow you to specify how much luggage you have, how tall you are, what kind of seat you want, if you want a decent meal, etc, and will give you a un…

In Europe, trains are somewhat closer to this and are in every way superior in my relatively limited experience. The difference when you go something like Paris > London is night and day compared to the horror that is flying.

Re: Justice Department Sues to Block Visa's Proposed Acquisition of Plaid

#77

Post by xzel »

fjni wrote: post #57
ceejayoz wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do some of both. When I link a Capital One account, I get an OAuth-style flow and the ability to select which accounts I share directly on the C1 website. The sites I use this on show up as "Linked Apps" in my security settings in C1. Others use the credentials-based flow.

CapitalOne has (not even just for banking standards) an amazing developer platform. https://developer.capitalone.com

CapOne’s API snd docs, technical customer support and their easy to use VCC generation has kept me with them long after I had expected. Other than Amex they’re probably the only big “bank” I’d recommend (and Fidelity for checking).

Re: Justice Department Sues to Block Visa's Proposed Acquisition of Plaid

#78

Post by sneak »

madrox wrote: post #59
nobody9999 wrote: post #20

I was struck by this bit: 'If Plaid remained free to develop its competing payment platform, then “Visa may be forced to accept lower margins or not have a competitive offering."' My understanding is that Plaid would/could charge significantly less (up to 50% less) than Visa currently does. And that's the value of competition . Not necessarily as a race to the bottom (as we've seen in the airline industry, but that's…

I'm curious if this line of reasoning could extend to app stores and their 30%

Apple charges approximately 10x the market rate for credit card processing for IAPs.

Re: Justice Department Sues to Block Visa's Proposed Acquisition of Plaid

#79

Post by fakedang »

Ericson2314 wrote: post #41
mitchellst wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- Plaid is hardly alone in its competitive space. Even if Finicity sucks and SynapseFi is mid-implosion, they don't have a corner on capabilities like this indefinitely. MX is pretty alright. - That ignores FANG platforms that could implement similar money-moving features. - Stripe trotted out their "Banking as a Service" APIs today. - Let's not forget the Chinese giants that have obviated the day-to-day need for cre…

If the fintech revolution is just around the corner, then how about we just delay these acquisitions a little just to safe? (In reality, I think the only fintech revolution that might be around the corner is new services the federal reserve rolls out)

Can you share a link of the new service by the Fed? I wanted to show it to somebody, but I don't know what it's called so it doesn't turn up on Google.

Re: Justice Department Sues to Block Visa's Proposed Acquisition of Plaid

#80

Post by pessimizer »

zelly wrote: post #49

Plaid is more of a monopoly than Visa is. Plaid is literally the only way to do ACH without microdeposit verification. There is no reason Plaid should have a monopoly on this. If banks opened up APIs for bank account verification, then anyone could compete with Plaid. As usual the Justice Department doesn't know what they're talking about.

Are you suggesting that the Justice Department wouldn't object to Plaid acquiring Visa?
Post reply on HN