The Visa & Main platform will continue adding resources, programming and local activations, the company said in a Thursday (Feb. 5) press release emailed to PYMNTS.

“With Visa & Main, we’re connecting Visa’s products and in-house knowledge with the expertise of our clients and partners to provide small businesses with flexible financing opportunities and customer acquisition and technology support,” Kim Lawrence, regional president of North America at Visa, said in the release. “It’s a platform built to meet small business owners where they are — in our local neighborhoods and at community events across the country.”

To expand small business owners’ access to financing, Visa has launched a $100 million working capital facility with community-focused lender Lendistry. Visa & Main will add more grant opportunities and financial support programs in the coming months, according to the release.

To help entrepreneurs reach more customers, the platform offers marketing support, signage, digital guides, workshops and other resources, the Thursday press release said. Resources will be available for both everyday marketing and big events that may come to the small business owner’s town.

To assist small businesses with their digital transformation, Visa & Main will provide training for, and easier access to, digital payment acceptance tools, expense management and money-movement capabilities, risk and fraud-mitigation solutions, and digital enablement and financial education support, per the release. The platform will also include everyday savings programs and offers.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Global Digital Shopping Index: SMB Edition,” which was commissioned by Visa, found that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are 45% less likely to offer a seamless cross-channel shopping experience than large merchants.

SMBs also offer eight fewer digital shopping features, on average, than large merchants, even though shoppers want to use the same digital shopping features regardless of channel or merchant size.

Visa & Main joins several other programs the company introduced to help businesses in a variety of sectors. Visa said in November that it is investing in, and providing specialized financial tools and resources to, content creators. The company said it aims to help creators scale their businesses locally and globally.

An Australian bank has apologised to its customers after telling them it was “pleased” to swiftly pass on the RBA’s latest rate hike this week. ME Bank is among the quickest lenders to pass on the interest rake hike, with customers to start incurring the higher level of interest from Saturday.

Understandably, most customers did not welcome the news. A sentiment that the was perhaps compounded by the bank’s cheery tone and apparent delight.

While a rate hike was widely predicted by the market and economists, ME Bank’s team apparently weren’t quite as prepared, seemingly using the same correspondence from the previous rate cuts last year.

On Wednesday night shortly after 9pm, the bank again emailed customers saying it was “really sorry” about the correspondence and any confusion it caused.

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“This email was sent in error, and does not reflect ME’s commitment to communicate to you with clarity and empathy.

“We understand that rates increases can be challenging, and we’re here to support you.”

The mea culpa came five hours after the bank’s initial correspondence, with plenty of customers taking to social media to poke fun at the gaffe, with some even claiming it was enough for them to think about switching lenders.

Yahoo Finance contacted ME Bank to ask about the error.

Most major lenders will not start charging the higher level of interest until late next week, or the week after, according to an extensive roundup from consumer group Finder.

ME Bank customers will be among the earliest to be subject to the higher rate when it takes effect from Saturday, February 7.

Borrowers with BOQ, which owns ME Bank, will be hit from tomorrow, February 6.

ING Bank customers will be effected from Tuesday, February 10.

ANZ, Commonwealth Bank and NAB customers will be impacted from Friday, February 13. The same day as Bankwest and Suncorp customers.

Westpac borrowers will see their interest increased a few days later on February 17. Some of the other subsidiaries of the Big Four lenders will also pass it on that day, including St George, Bank of Melbourne and Bank SA. It’s the same date for Teachers Mutual and Uni Bank.

Meanwhile Macquarie Bank will pass it on from February 20.

A majority of mortgage borrowers didn’t reduce their payments after the recent rate cuts, so the RBA’s move this week might not cool the economy to the degree it wants. For that reason, forecasters are predicting further rate hikes to come for borrowers this year.

Women working in tech and financial services are at greater risk of losing their jobs to increased use of AI and automation than their male peers, according to a report that found experienced females were also being sidelined as a result of “rigid hiring processes”.

“Mid-career” women – with at least five years’ experience – are being overlooked for digital roles in the tech and financial and professional services sectors, where they are traditionally underrepresented, according to the report by the City of London Corporation.

The governing body that runs the capital’s Square Mile found female applicants were discriminated against by rigid, and sometimes automated, screening of their CVs, which did not take into account career gaps related to caring for children or relatives, or only narrowly considered their professional experience.

To reverse the trend, the corporation is calling on employers to focus on re-skilling female workers not currently in technical roles, particularly those in clerical positions most at risk of being displaced by automation.

It is estimated that about 119,000 clerical roles in tech and the financial and professional service sectors, predominantly carried out by women, will be displaced by automation over the next decade. Reskilling those affected by these job losses could save companies from making redundancy payments totalling as much as £757m, the report found.

Upskilling staff would allow employers to focus on candidates’ potential rather than their past technical experience, the report found. It is estimated that up to 60,000 women in tech leave their roles each year for reasons including lack of advancement, lack of recognition and inadequate pay.

Dame Susan Langley, the mayor of City of London, said: “By investing in people and supporting the development of digital skills within the workforce, employers can unlock enormous potential and build stronger, more resilient teams. Focusing on talent, adaptability and opportunity will ensure the UK continues to lead on innovation and remains a global hub for digital excellence.”

Recent surveys have shown that as many as a quarter of UK workers are worried that their jobs could disappear in the next five years because of AI, according to a poll by the international recruitment company Randstad. Union leaders have called on companies to commit to investing in workforce skills and training.

The City of London Corporation found that women were being overlooked for roles even as difficulties in hiring talent meant more than 12,000 digital vacancies in these sectors went unfilled in 2024.

Companies have tried to deal with worker shortages by increasing wages above the national average, but the report found that higher pay rates would not solve the problem. It warned that the widening digital talent gap was forecast to last until at least 2035 and that under this scenario the UK could miss out on more than £10bn of economic growth.