The sanctions are going to start biting for everyday Russians in a way they havenāt so far if theyāre unable to access basic card payments. If the people of Kyiv & Kharkiv are on the front lines should the people of St Petersburg & Moscow not share some pain? (Genuine question)
This could be an intentional effort to push more people into using crypto further weakening the rouble. This would mean Russia becomes even more reliant on the global default currency - The Dollar.
Had Visa on my watch list for a while. Its now dropped to pre-pandemic levels. Hoping its goes below $200 for a buy (not financial advice)
Not a good look for Visa, banning porn site mindGeek due to child pornographers uploading content and then quietly reversing course when they though nobody was watching.
TLDR - Visa and Master Card knowingly supported and profited from child pornography. A Judge wrote a decision admonishing both payment providers. In theory, the Boards of both could be criminally liable but that seem unlikely.
I think this is a fascinating issue. Obviously lots of practices at mindgeek are (were?) really bad but should we really be pushing for Visa & Mastercard to be de facto regulators?
Given the prominence that they have in modern life it not a million miles away from trying to E.g hold an electricity provider responsible for what someone does white their productā¦
Thereās a really good episode about this on the FTās āhot moneyā podcast that featured Bill Ackerman. I think I disagree with his stance but he comes across quite well.The whole series is worth a listen.
It highlights a difficult decision, at what point do visa and MasterCard decide to stop processing payments for any particular reason? We are nearing if not at the point where visa and MasterCard furring you off would mean cutting you off from society altogether.
I know payment processors who were traditionally neutral (all payment processing was allowed within the confines of the law) but felt pressed by groups to start taking political stances and cut off certain groups from access to payments.
Thereās plenty of payment processors out there so thatās not necessarily as big an issue when thereās choice. But almost all cards are either visa or MasterCard and theyāre they gatekeepers of payments.
You could look at treating both like we treat openreach and require a separation between the visa and mc and their merchant facing services. Unfortunately I donāt think Iāve seen any real appetite to look at the problem in detail.
Visa and MasterCard arenāt being asked to regulate theyāre being asked to stop doing business with a company that sells access to illegal material when they know this is the case.
This would be a useful step forward the decision is on the payment processors, this is another case where you have a monopoly/duopoly and they lack any credible competition.
Yeah I think @Edenās idea is smart. But youāre right there doesnāt seem to be any appetite for it. I would seriously recommend the podcast series because itās a very much more nuanced debate than legal Vs illegal. There are a lot of moral judgements and decisions at play. Which on some level there does need to be but I would question whether visa &
Mastercard are the right people to do it. Plus on a business level it doesnāt really make sense imo. (I hold both).
Visa released their Q3 earnings yesterday evening
Good results in general, but nothing extraordinary. Share price decrease slightly after hours. Might be a good buying opportunity. Revenues increased around 10%.
Results reflect the overall economy with people spending less. There is also a pending litigation. Outlook sounded positive with Visa diversifying revenues and increasing them, specifically on value added services.