Visa Investor Day – The 7 Reasons Why I Invest in Visa

Short Blog

Visa held their Investor Day last week on Feb 20, and I encourage everyone to read through the presentations. Most of you know my strong network bias, V/MA are my top personal holdings. I’m not a financial analyst; my investment hypothesis rests on the strategic need for card networks and their sustainable advantage in meeting those needs. 

Let me provide my top 7 reasons why I am so firmly behind the networks, with references to investor day content and my previous blogs.

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eReciepts – The Politics and Economics of SKU Data

An update to my Data Games – 2021

© Starpoint LLP, 2025. No part of this site, blog.starpointllp.com, may be reproduced or retransmitted in whole or in part in any manner without the permission of the copyright owner.

Electronic receipts (eReceipts) COULD transform the retail landscape by offering numerous benefits to consumers and businesses. With the potential to enhance digital wallets, improve customer experiences, empower AI agents, and increase advertising effectiveness. However, the widespread adoption and sharing SKU-level data face several challenges, most of which are NOT technical. Today, I’m providing an overview of key business and economic challenges of unlocking SKU data.

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Scenario – Agentic Wallets and Federated Data

Keeping up with the latest in agentic commerce, artificial intelligence (AI), payments, and data privacy is an ongoing challenge. Data and LLM are the key ingredients fueling the rapid advancements in AI and machine learning innovations. As a privacy advocate, I remain deeply concerned about the centralization of data. Once AI models are built to understand “you,” they no longer need continuous access to your data—just ongoing observation (see blogs on Data Centralization and Payments and the Observer Effect).

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Wallets and Privacy

I’m on a brief vacation celebrating my 28th anniversary and deep in thought (pic below). What am I thinking of here on the beach? Wallets, Networks, Trust and Privacy.

The Case for Separating Wallets from Identity Providers

As digital identities continue to evolve, one of the most important debates centers around who controls and operates the wallet that holds these identities. Specifically, should wallets be separated from authorities that legally issue “identity”—commonly known as Identity Providers (IdPs)? This issue is particularly relevant in countries like India and Europe, where digital identity initiatives have made significant strides, yet their approaches raise important questions about privacy and control.

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Wallets and Networks: The Backbone of Digital Transactions

Stimulating community discussion is the #1 reason I write this blog. The intersection of payments, banking, and technology is evolving rapidly, and I’m fortunate to engage with great minds like Dave Birch and new friends like Simon Taylor. Dave’s recent post on crypto predictions got me thinking about a topic I keep coming back to—wallets and networks.

As a former banker, I’m naturally more skeptical about FinTechs disrupting the core of banking. Consumer behavior is incredibly difficult to change, and financial services are among the most competitive industries in the world. If there’s one concept where my perspective diverges from many thought leaders, it’s the power of bank networks (read more). These networks are the foundation of financial transactions, and they continue to define the way money moves.

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Real-Time Settlement Coming to US Cards?

US Payment Infrastructure is in the midst of completing a major renovation. 

  • The Clearing House (TCH) Real-Time Payment (RTP)
  • FedNow
  • JPM’s ONYX (now renamed Kinexsys)

Let me preempt the #1 question most of you are about to ask “are card volumes at risk”? Nope, why on earth would banks want to walk away from the most profitable retail banking product in the history of man (see Future of Retail Banking)!?

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eCommerce 2025 – Wallets, Share Shift, Conversion Rates and Key Segments

© Starpoint LLP, 2025. No part of this site, blog.starpointllp.com, may be reproduced or retransmitted, in whole or in part, in any manner without the permission of the copyright owner. Also, see our Legal/Disclaimer (this is a highly opinionated and partially informed blog).

My estimates for how US eCom market share will shift in next 3 yrs are at the end of this blog.

eCommerce is not a single monolithic market. There are many “segments” to optimize that vary by geography, retailer type, consumer device, customer type (guest vs loyal), transaction type (recurring vs new), ad type, payment type,…etc. A great source of this information is Monetate (highly recommend). For example, let’s look at conversion rates by industry, device and region.

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Winning in Network of Networks: Collaboration

My largest holdings are card networks, and I’m very keen on their continued growth and sustainability of competitive advantage. My confidence is based on five broad themes. 

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Tokens and Binding 101

Let’s talk about tokens. When discussing tokens and payments, it’s important to clarify which category of tokens you’re talking about. Today, I’m not discussing NFTs; instead, I’m discussing card network tokens. It’s hard to believe I’ve been writing on this subject for almost 15 years. For a historical refresh, here are a few of my old blogs

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