Visa Joins the Amazon Partner Network As Fintechs Turn to the Cloud for Payments Acceptance

Visa Inc. said early Thursday it has joined a network of service providers maintained by Amazon.com Inc. The e-commerce giant’s AWS Partner Network will enable Visa to reach new clients for its payment services, particularly fintechs and independent software vendors (ISVs) accustomed to operating through cloud computing, Visa said. The move also comes as merchants and processors increasingly turn to cloud technology to drive down payments-acceptance costs, sources say.

The network, which Amazon launched in 2012 with a few hundred companies, now claims some 130,000 entities from more than 200 countries, according to Amazon data. Visa rival Mastercard Inc. is already a member, according to Amazon’s online list. “Amazon has clearly carved out a distinctive place in the digital-transactions ecosystem, so it’s hard to do business now without working with AWS (or Google or Microsoft),” says Steve Mott, principal at payments advisory BetterBuyDesign, in an email message. “Many new service providers (and fintech startups) integrate with all three cloud systems.”

For Visa, the move represents an avenue toward online exposure to a wider variety of potential clients for its payments services and will aid existing clients in adopting Visa’s services “more efficiently,” the card network says. The move toward cloud platforms also speeds the introduction of new payments services from fintechs and financial institutions, Visa argues.

The emphasis for now, Visa says, is on easing the move by fintechs toward adopting more Visa services, starting with cross-border payments that rely on Visa technology. “We’re excited to bring Visa Cross-Border Solutions to the AWS Marketplace,” said Vanessa Colella, Visa’s global head of innovation and digital partnerships, in a statement.

Visa’s move to join Amazon’s network also comes as cloud technology is steadily replacing costly hardware installations for transaction switching, observers argue. “AWS’s acceptance and switching functionality grow, improving the overall product viability, while Visa gets more business thanks to AWS simplifying and speeding front-end integration,” notes Cliff Gray, principal at Gray Consulting Ventures LLC.

Indeed, Gray foresees more direct connections to networks like Visa as cloud connections become more common and as “Visa expands its acceptance technology and policies.”

Visa’s decision to join the AWS Partner Network comes just over two years after the network and Amazon came to terms over a threat Amazon had issued to stop accepting Visa cards in the United Kingdom. The online retailing giant had complained in January 2022 that Visa acceptance costs in that country were too high, but by February the two companies had come to terms. Though details of the agreement were not revealed, one stipulation concerned an agreement by Amazon to drop a surcharge it had levied on Visa transactions in Australia and New Zealand.