Following PayPal and Block, Visa (V.US) also laid off workers: 7% of employees were optimized, and resources were reinvested in cross-border payments, stablecoins, and B2B

Zhitong Finance App learned that in order to enhance competitiveness in the increasingly competitive payment industry, Visa Inc. (V.US) CEO Ryan McInerney (Ryan McInerney) is working to streamline the company structure and plans to abolish about 2,600 jobs.

According to an internal memorandum, McInney announced to employees on Tuesday that the layoffs accounted for about 7% of the total number of employees worldwide, mainly involving technology and product teams.

In the memo, he wrote, “I am convinced we are making the right decisions for Visa, our customers, and our partners. We will continue to drive company-wide efficiency improvements so that resources can be reinvested in business areas with the greatest potential for growth.”

According to reports, Visa is scheduled to release quarterly earnings after the US stock market on Tuesday. By the end of the last fiscal year, the total number of employees in the company was about 34,100, which is more than double what it was ten years ago. Recently, several fintech competitors, including PayPal Holdings Inc. (PYPL.US) and Block Inc. (XYZ.US), have announced plans to lay off a larger percentage of their employees.

Affected by this news, Visa's stock price rose about 2% during pre-market trading on Tuesday. As of Monday's close, the stock had a cumulative increase of 3.4% this year, slightly lower than the 3.8% increase of the S&P 500 financial index (covering 76 constituent stocks) over the same period.

McInney also stated in the memorandum: “To seize future opportunities and keep Visa ahead of this transformation, we must continue to evolve the way we work. Artificial intelligence (AI) is also accelerating this transformation and reshaping the way we work within Visa.”

According to people familiar with the matter, although AI is being used to reduce repetitive tasks and speed up the product development process, it is not the only reason for this layoff. Visa plans to reinvest the cut resources into consumer payments, commercial and capital flow solutions, and value-added services, including stablecoins, cross-border payments, and business-to-business (B2B) businesses.

In the memorandum, McInney concluded: “The choices we have made over the past few years are driving us into a new era in the commercial sector, and the company's business is showing strong growth momentum. This is reflected in our continued solid financial performance, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and breakthrough innovation in the speed of product development and delivery.”