Square just found a replacement for high-profile CFO Sarah Friar but is facing another big hole in its leadership team as head of payments Mary Kay Bowman leaves for Visa.
Bowman will be head of seller solutions at Visa, where she will lead design, development and delivery of services that will “transform the payment experience for both sellers and consumers,” Visa said in its announcement, adding this work is critical as the point of sale shifts from payment acceptance to digital cross-channel payment experiences.
The Square Inc. Point of Sale application is displayed for a photograph on an Apple Inc. iPhone in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Feb. 16, 2018. Square Inc. is expected to release earnings figures on February 27. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Visa has reported a dramatic migration toward contactless and digital transactions, which create opportunities to build marketing and ancillary services on top of payments, but also pose challenges since this migration is not exclusive to Visa and thus attracts mobile-driven competitors.
As this trend accelerates and alternative merchant acquirers continue to diversify, Visa will likely expand its token service to attract cross-channel partners and continue to push its “buy button,” a Visa/Mastercard-driven initiative to create a single experience for digital commerce.
Square has also been diversifying to stake out a position in a rapidly evolving merchant acquiring market, but is presently faced with the loss of two people in leadership roles. Square hired Bowman in 2015, a move that was considered a coup for Square since Bowman had helped run Amazon Local Register, the e-commerce giant’s effort to counter Square’s mobile point of sale business.
Square also recently lost Friar, considered one of CEO Jack Dorsey’s top lieutenants. Square earlier this month hired former Activision exec Amrita Ahuja to replace Friar, who took a job as CEO of Nextdoor.
Buy now/pay later popularity has been on the rise as more consumers are turning to short-term installment lending to finance everyday purchases. The Swedish financier will find out if that momentum will be a winner with investors in the U.S.
The Securities and Exchange Commission accused a former supervisor with the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond of trading New York Community Bank and Capital One stock based on material nonpublic information.
The pro-business, deregulation-friendly administration is taking office at a time when economic conditions are improving for fintechs and their investors.
While many banks and financial service companies play out on the global stage, the industry itself can be smaller than it seems. Many of the honorees on this year's list worked at the same companies during their careers. Here is a look at those connections.
Some lenders are once again hiring mortgage lenders, but memories of the painful staffing cuts they were forced to make over the past two years remain top of mind.
Enforcement actions from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau still fresh in the mind of financial leaders have renewed hopes that a second Trump administration will favorably alter the agency's future.
