David Heun

Javier Pérez-Tasso has been named the new CEO of payments messaging standards provider Swift, replacing Gottfried Leibbrandt, who steps down from the post at the end of June.

With Wirecard's value tumbling since a Financial Times report two months ago alleging an accounting scandal in its Asian operations — and a followup Wednesday reporting that half of its revenue comes from "three opaque partner companies" — the German payments processor received a lift from a €900 million ($1 billion U.S.) investment from Japan's SoftBank.

NatWest has started a three-month testing period of a payment card using biometric fingerprint for authorization with 200 customers, saying it is the first such card issued by a U.K. bank.

Norwegian digital payments provider MeaWallet is offering a new payment tokenization solution that delivers Mastercard, Visa and American Express tokenization services through a single connection.

As part of its formal spinoff from consumer lender Affirm, B2B e-commerce platform Resolve is launching automated payments that offer extended net terms for product buyers.

There are many motivations for implementing faster payments, such as paying gig economy workers after each job, sending funds overseas, or improving insurance payouts. In all of these examples, the demand comes from the payments recipient.

The reasons for banks to not embrace faster payments schemes are quickly dwindling. But many are still watching from the sidelines.

T-Mobile, which announced Thursday that its four-month testing phase for the T-Mobile Money app is complete and that the banking/payments service is available nationwide, said the next step is to establish itself as a mainstream financial services company.

Flywire is partnering with True North to allow Canadian educational institutions to better manage payments from international students by integrating them with application, enrollment and accounts receivable processes.

If American Express is going to soar in the future, it plans to do so firmly attached to the new 11-year contract it has signed with Delta Airlines.