Over the past several years, financial technology — or fintech, for short — started a revolution of sorts in what some consider a stodgy industry. Online-only banks with no branches, digital payment systems, and person-to-person (P2P) payment apps are just a few of the ways that technology is changing the way consumers handled their money.

That hasn’t gone unnoticed by some of the biggest names in the financial services industry, and rather than reinvent the wheel, some are spending hefty sums to acquire the talent and technology that sought to disrupt them in the first place. While there are many to choose from, let’s look at three recent events that provide proof positive that fintech is entering the mainstream.

Visa acquires Plaid

In mid-January, credit card behemoth Visa (NYSE:V) announced that it signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Plaid for $5.3 billion. Plaid’s technology is accepted by more than 11,000 financial institutions and offers a convenient way for consumers to share their financial information with a variety of apps.

The platform uses a host of measures to ensure customers’ data is secure, including end-to-end encryption, strong multi-factor authentication, and robust monitoring. When a new user sets up a PayPal Venmo account — which lets users share money via its mobile app — it’s Plaid’s platform that safely establishes the connection to the customer’s bank account. Visa said that one in four people with a U.S. bank account had used Plaid to make the connection, amounting to more than 200 million user accounts.

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