Partnerships and collaborations are common in the US, with payment providers seeking to leverage their counterpart’s strengths, expand market reach, and improve customer engagements and offerings to cater to diverse needs and industries. These collaborations include strategic alliances, technology integration and co-branded products.
In 2023, there is an emphasis on digital banking, financial inclusion, modernisation of payment systems and the expansion of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services.
Card payments
Visa and Mastercard: Two of the largest payment networks in the world, are competitors but have collaborated with numerous fintech partners over the years to drive innovation and improve the payment ecosystem. This includes the development of virtual card solutions. For example, both cards have extended the support of their payment rails to China’s biggest payment apps, enhancing cross-border payments to and from that country to the US. This comes as a survey found that 54% of consumers use a physical or virtual debit card and 36% use a physical or virtual credit card to pay in the US.
BNPL
Partnerships between banks, fintech companies and BNPL providers help to expand the reach of BNPL services and provide consumers with another payment option. There are 79 million US-based BNPL users. In 2022, BNPL lending was predicted to reach USD 74 billion, and the figure is projected to increase to USD 114 billion this year.
PayPal and Plaid: PayPal has partnered with Plaid, a fintech company that connects banks with fintech apps, to offer its BNPL service “Pay in 4”, the most used BNPL service in the US, to Plaid’s partner banks. This allows Plaid’s partners to offer Pay in 4 as a payment option.
Affirm and Shopify Capital: Affirm has worked with Shopify Capital, the lending arm of the e-commerce platform Shopify, to offer BNPL services to Shopify merchants.
Digital wallets
In 2023, 72% of Americans considered adopting digital wallets as the primary payment method for shopping. Statistics also reveal that 91% of Americans aged between 18 and 26 use digital wallets as their primary payment method for shopping.
American Express and PayPal: American Express partnered with PayPal to allow American Express cardholders to use reward points to make purchases through PayPal.
Bank of America and Zelle: Bank of America is a member of the Zelle network, a P2P payment platform. This collaboration enables Bank of America customers to make fast and secure payments to other Zelle users.
Conclusion
Visa’s cross-border volumes rose by 16% YoY, driven by collaborations with companies like Western Union and Remitly. Meanwhile, Mastercard reported a 24% increase in cross-border volumes for 2023, supported by partnerships with UBS and Alipay. These collaborations are allowing cross-border payment providers to thrive in the US, drawing from the experience and expertise of one and merging with the other to great effect.
