Visa and PayPal announce strategic partnership

Recently, Visa and PayPal – – the largest payments network in the world and the largest digital payments network in the world – – announced a strategic partnership “that will result in an improved and more seamless payment experience for Visa cardholders and will offer greater choice in how consumers pay with the PayPal and Venmo wallets.”

From the Press Release:

The partnership puts PayPal and Visa on a new path, with the companies working more collaboratively to accelerate the adoption of safe, reliable and convenient digital payments for consumers and merchants. Further, the arrangement is designed to carry significant benefits for issuing financial institutions, acquirers, and merchants. For issuing institutions, these include a better customer experience, more spending volume on their credit and debit cards, lower operational costs, and improved security. Merchants will also benefit from the improved customer experience, efficiency, and security, which together will help drive increased sales.

Karen Webster at Pymnts.com has an interesting take on the move, particularly in examining the differences in outlook previously exposed by PayPal’s Dan Schulman (“Embrace partnerships and consumer choice!”) and Visa’s Charlie Scarf (“You’re either with us or against us!”)

Her conclusion?

The hard part now is execution. That is what will decide whether this is the sizzle that it appears to be or another great announcement whose best days were behind it the day the press release dropped.

PayPal mainstreaming; Visa reaching out to the former “small fry” — interesting days ahead, and likely a story we’ll hear more about in the very near future!