MasterCard (MA +0.47%) and Visa (V +0.07%) are major competitors, but a recent agreement shows their willingness to protect consumers and their businesses.
It turns out America has long lagged the rest of the world in regulations to protect consumers making payments, but MasterCard and Visa are aiming to change that through a partnership. However, this agreement likely won’t only help consumers, but also the businesses themselves as people everywhere will continue to trust MasterCard and Visa and will likely be less willing to try new and emerging payment technologies like Bitcoin if they know their data is safe.
In this segment of The Motley Fool’s financials-focused show, Where the Money Is, banking analyst David Hanson is joined by Fool contributor Patrick Morris to discuss what this partnership between MasterCard, Visa, banks, credit unions and retailers to enhance the security of the payments industry following the Target (TGT +0.36%) and Neiman Marcus data breeches means to both individuals and the investors.
Most importantly, Patrick and David remind investors the shares' past performance isn't a reason to blindly invest in these companies.
