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Visa has quietly shuttered its Open Banking business in the US, marking a significant retreat from a market where the rules of customer data access remain hotly contested.
The decision, confirmed by people familiar with the matter, underscores the deepening standoff between traditional banks and financial technology firms over who controls – and profits from – consumer financial data.
The fault lines in US Open Banking
Visa retreats from US Open Banking
At its core, Open Banking is designed to allow customers to share their financial data securely with licensed third parties, enabling smoother account-to-account transfers, streamlined onboarding, and innovative digital services.
While Europe has made such access mandatory through its revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), the US remains a regulatory patchwork.
In July, JPMorgan Chase signalled its intent to impose fees on fintech firms seeking access to customer account data – charges that could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
PNC Financial’s chief executive, Bill Demchak, has also suggested his bank is exploring a similar strategy.
Banks argue these charges are necessary to cover the cost of securing and transmitting sensitive information.
Fintechs, by contrast, see them as an existential threat, warning that new tolls would strangle innovation and undermine competition.
Alex Rampell, general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, likened the trend to “Operation Chokepoint 3.0” – a strategy that effectively throttles certain industries’ access to financial infrastructure.
Visa changes course
Visa’s withdrawal follows years of investment in Open Banking.
The company abandoned a proposed $5.3bn acquisition of Plaid in 2021 after US regulators raised antitrust concerns, later acquiring Swedish rival Tink for around $2bn. Tink was pitched as a vehicle to accelerate Visa’s ambitions in data connectivity.
However, with regulatory clarity elusive in the US and the possibility of rising costs to secure customer data, the group has opted to concentrate its resources elsewhere.
“We are focusing our Open Banking strategy in high-potential markets like Europe and Latin America,” a Visa spokesperson said.
Chief executive Ryan McInerney told investors earlier this year that these regions offer the “greatest potential” for Open Banking-driven growth.
The contrast is stark.
In Europe, rules mandate that banks provide access to customer account data to approved third parties at no cost to the consumer.
This has created fertile ground for specialist providers, from Plaid to Token.io, to flourish. Latin America, though less harmonised, has seen governments in Brazil and Mexico move decisively to set frameworks that encourage competition while protecting consumers.
What next for US Open Banking?
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has reopened its rulemaking process on Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which governs consumer data rights.
Yet observers expect any resulting rules to be diluted after years of political pressure. Under the Trump administration, the CFPB had sided with banks calling for Open Banking provisions to be rolled back.
Even if a new framework emerges, fintech executives fear it will be “open” banking in name only – leaving firms to negotiate bilateral agreements with banks or swallow higher costs.
Visa’s retreat may not be the last. Other providers reliant on low-cost data access could be forced to rethink their business models, seek acquisition by larger rivals such as Mastercard’s Finicity, or exit the market altogether.
For now, the global payments giant is signalling that innovation in customer data-driven finance will be shaped in Europe and Latin America – not in its home market.
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