Payment Giant Cuts Jobs! Visa Plans to Lay Off 2,600, Tech and Product Teams Hit First

Global payment giant Visa (V-US) is reportedly planning to lay off approximately 2,600 employees, equivalent to about 7% of its global workforce. CEO Ryan McInerney aims to streamline the organization and improve operational efficiency to respond to increasingly fierce competition in the payments industry.

According to a Bloomberg report on Tuesday (28th), citing an internal Visa employee memo, this round of layoffs will primarily affect technology and product teams. McInerney stated that the company must continuously adjust its ways of working to seize future business opportunities and maintain its leading position during the transformation of the payments industry.

As of the end of the previous fiscal year, Visa had approximately 34,100 employees—more than triple the number from 10 years ago. This layoff will be one of the company’s largest workforce adjustments in recent years. Visa has not responded to requests for comment, and the company is scheduled to release its quarterly earnings after the U.S. market closes on Tuesday.

In the memo, McInerney expressed his belief that this decision aligns with the long-term interests of Visa, its customers, and partners. The company will continue to improve operational efficiency and reallocate resources to its highest-growth potential businesses.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is also a key tool in Visa’s operational transformation. The company is using AI to reduce repetitive tasks and accelerate product development. However, according to sources, AI is not the sole reason for Visa’s decision to cut jobs. This move more broadly reflects the company’s need to reconfigure human resources and investment priorities.

Visa plans to reinvest resources into consumer payments, commercial payments, money transfer solutions, and value-added services, including areas such as stablecoins, cross-border payments, and business-to-business (B2B) payments.

McInerney said that thanks to strategic initiatives taken over the past few years, Visa is entering a new era of business development. The company continues to show growth momentum in financial performance, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and product innovation, with faster product development and launch speeds than before.

The payments and fintech industry has recently seen a wave of layoffs. Visa’s competitor Mastercard (MA-US) earlier this year announced it would cut about 4% of its global workforce to realign investment priorities. Fintech company Block (XYZ-US) said in February it would lay off approximately 4,000 employees—nearly half its workforce. Other players like PayPal (PYPL-US) have also announced large-scale workforce adjustments in recent months.

Visa’s stock rose 2.1% to $370 in pre-market trading on Tuesday. Year-to-date, as of Monday’s close, the stock has gained 3.4%, slightly below the S&P 500 financial index’s 3.8% gain over the same period.