David Heun

Amid the economic and health wreckage the COVID-19 global pandemic has created, payments have stepped to the forefront in a way that has allowed banks, merchants and consumers to not only continue to do business, but also to increase communication.

Fintech software provider Rapyd and LytePay, a payments provider for self-employed workers, are partnering to launch a digital business wallet and accompanying Mastercard for real estate agents in Singapore.

Cloud-based patient billing provider VisitPay is partnering with the Geisinger Health System to simplify the billing and payments process for both patients and providers.

For real-time payments to become a standard in U.S. billing and payment processing, businesses have to want what providers are developing. And that acceptance, or the interest in having an RTP option, is on the rise.

For Marqeta, the advancement of 3D Secure 2.0 in Europe presented an opportunity to design its own version of the online security protocol in order to claim ownership of the standard and provide more flexibility for its use with customers.

A rise in chargebacks has renewed a push for an independent standards body by the SPP, formed in 2018 to represent merchant groups .

As health care payments increasingly look like traditional retail payments with various provider-consumer touchpoints, those acquiring hospital and medical clients are also turning to a payment facilitator model to secure contracts.

Payments platform APEXX Global is working with PayPal to expand payment methods to e-commerce merchants using APEXX, including the addition of the Venmo P2P digital wallet.

ACH network steward Nacha says Visa has been added to its list of partners for a payment information exchange it is creating to help credentialed service providers share and manage electronic payments information for faster and more secure processing.

John Drechny, the CEO of the Merchant Advisory Group, talks to PaymentsSource Associate Editor David Heun about how merchants are looking beyond the coronavirus crisis — and how every choice merchants make today will have consequences that last well beyond the pandemic.

Video games provide a rare escape to locked-down consumers, and many modern games are so sophisticated that they support their own digital storefronts — with the potential for real-world losses if fraudsters find a way in.

Western Union confirmed yet again that for a payments company to survive the coronavirus pandemic, it needed to enter the crisis with a strong footing in digital payments.

Home-service providers using Jobber software to manage their businesses now have access to Stripe Capital to obtain funds.

Payment processor Elavon purchased Sage Pay four months ago, completing the acquisition on March 11. Two days later, Elavon's entire workforce was operating remotely as the coronavirus forced it into lockdown.

BBVA USA is planning to make digital bank accounts available to customers through Google Pay next year.

MoneyGram International's digital transformation came at just the right time, considering walk-in traffic at MoneyGram locations in certain regions of the world was stymied for months by the coronavirus pandemic. But for many people, digital is still no replacement for the human touch.

Apple Card helped push services-category revenue to new heights for Apple, which reported double-digit growth in its product and services segments for the third quarter of 2020.

The agency's voice carries even more weight in light of the coronavirus pandemic, which has hastened the transition to digital and remote payments.

In the same manner as its previous plans for a fintech charter, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency is getting some pushback from banking trade groups on its idea to establish a payments charter.

Citing the benefit of making purchases from home during the coronavirus pandemic, China's UnionPay International is partnering with digital platform Glovo to enable its cardholders in Europe to participate in on-demand shopping.