Plaid launches A2A payments programme

The firm has put together an ecosystem of payment partners in North America and Europe – including Square, Dwolla and Currencycloud – that will integrate Plaid’s connectivity technology into their processing systems for bank payments.

This means that companies can add a pay-by-bank option at checkout, with the funds transfered by the ecosystem partners.

Plaid says that account-based payments are set to be at the centre of the shift to digital wallets, helping to save businesses a fortune in credit card fees.

In January, Visa abandoned its planned $5.3 billion takeover of Plaid after the US Justice Department filed suit to block the combination over competition concerns.

The DoJ determined that the acquisition of Plaid by Visa would eliminate a nascent competitive threat to the card scheme’s own business because Plaid was planning its own payment service.