Visa bars employees from trading prediction markets on nonpublic information
Visa has banned employees from using nonpublic information to place bets on prediction markets, according to an internal policy update reported July 15. The prohibition covers wagers on finance, politics, and specific companies. The payments giant is the latest major employer to restrict worker participation in event contracts. The move follows parallel restrictions by major banks and government bodies. Visa's internal overhaul signals that corporate compliance departments now treat prediction markets as a genuine insider-trading vector.
Visa's ban removes another cohort of informed, deep-pocketed traders from Kalshi and Polymarket just as both platforms need professional flow to defend regulatory legitimacy. Payments network employees with advance knowledge of merchant deals, partnership timelines, and transaction trends were natural edge-players in finance and company-specific event markets. Losing them widens spreads and degrades price signal in contract categories that already face existential pressure.
The corporate pattern is hardening: Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley imposed sports-only carve-outs, and now Visa has issued a blanket prohibition. Other Fortune 500 compliance departments will likely follow the same risk-averse playbook. For prediction market operators, the squeeze means rebuilding trust with institutional legal teams or watching professional volume migrate permanently to state-licensed sportsbooks and offshore venues. The informed trader base is shrinking faster than platforms can replace it.
Visa joins Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in barring professional traders from finance and politics prediction markets, extending a corporate and government clampdown that now covers banks, a major payments network, and state and municipal workers in Arizona and Chicago.