Justice Department Files Suit Against Visa To Block Acquisition of Plaid

The U.S. government on Thursday filed a lawsuit seeking to block Visa Inc from purchasing the financial technology company Plaid.

In a complaint filed with a federal court in San Francisco, the government called Visa “a monopolist in online debit transactions,” and said the proposed acquisition “would eliminate a nascent competitive threat” to that monopoly.

Visa said in January it had agreed to buy privately held software startup Plaid Inc in a $5.3 billion deal aimed at boosting the payments giant’s access to the booming financial technology sector.

Mastercard Announces Acquisiton of Finicity for $825 Million

(Reuters) - Mastercard Inc said on Tuesday it would buy Finicity in a deal valued at $825 million, adding a fintech firm that helps banks share customer data with other financial firms.The world’s second-largest payments processor also said Finicity’s existing shareholders can get an earn-out of up to an additional $160 million, if performance targets are met.Finicity will help Mastercard strengthen its open banking services, which allow customers to determine how and where third parties suc...