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NewsBriefs

This article contains excerpts from news stories recently posted is characterizing the move as a win for consumers and
under Breaking Industry News on our homepage. For links to these businesses. Not surprisingly, Visa and Plaid put a different
and other full news stories, please visit www.greensheet.com/break- spin on the decision. "We believe the combination of Visa
ingnews.php.. with Plaid would have delivered significant benefits," said
Al Kelly, Visa Chairman and CEO. "However, it has been
a full year since we first announced our intent to acquire
Plaid, and protracted and complex litigation will likely
take substantial time to fully resolve."

Green Sheet interviews Wnet's Wendy Holliday
ETA welcomes 2021 Young
Payments Professionals Scholars On Jan. 4, 2021, the Women's Network in Electronic
Transactions (Wnet) welcomed newly elected members to
The Electronic Transactions Association welcomed its its board, executive committee and president's advisory
incoming class of 2021 ETA Young Payments Professionals council. As the organization enters its fifteenth year,
Scholars. The year-long program is designed to prepare its growing membership includes men and women
young payments professionals for leading roles at the ETA committed to advancing diversity and inclusion in
and throughout the payments industry. Jodie Kelley, CEO payments and fintech, Wnet representatives stated. In
of the ETA, stated, "We are excited to work with this year's addition, Wnet recently hired its first chief executive
scholars to further their connections within the industry officer, Wendy Holliday, M.Ed., CAE, to support and
and look forward to collaborating with the group to create expand the organization's mission.
programming that will bring their perspectives to the
forefront of the industry." Digital shopping to outlast pandemic, experts say
Visa, Plaid combo called off Holiday eGift spend rose 40 percent in 2020, according to
Blackhawk Network's BrandedPay Post-Holiday Spending
Visa Inc. scuttled plans to acquire fintech Plaid under Report, published Jan. 21, 2021. Theresa McEndree, global
pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ head of marketing and corporate brand at Blackhawk,
stated she expects digital sales to
remain strong, especially in the
first quarter of 2021, as shoppers
take advantage of online sales. "As
consumer behavior continued the
rapid, digital migration, gift card
programs are no exception," she said.
"This is a huge win for retailers, as
gift card recipients show up ready and
excited to use them."
Mastercard, Visa move
contactless to cloud
Mastercard and Visa want to make
contactless payment acceptance a no-
brainer for businesses, particularly
small merchants. Mastercard is
launching a first-ever U.S. deployment
of Cloud Tap on Phone, a cloud-based
platform that turns any NFC-enabled
Android smartphone or tablet into a
contactless payment acceptance device.
Mastercard said it is partnering with
leading acquirer Global Payments Inc.
and the payment gateway firm NMI
to support Tap on Phone payment
acceptance by Computer Engineering
Group, a California-based IT services
firm.

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