John Adams

Governments are directly advancing real-time digital payments — a welcome move for Ripple, which is applying its relationship with MoneyGram and a growing base of eager partners to expand its network.

The nationwide lockdown in Italy has necessitated changes for Pellegrino personally, and for his business. The two worlds often intersect.

The global efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak are leading to drastic actions that test the limits of what consumers will accept when governments and other entities use their payment data.

Something as simple as the sale of cheese can show how fear instantly affects the economy, disrupting trade and the transaction fees that processors rely on.

Investors and deep-pocketed payments firms have funneled hundreds of billions of dollars into the payments industry, demanding results in areas as wide ranging as digital processing, consumer experience, risk management and compliance.

Michael Miebach was already a major cog in Mastercard’s digital transformation and dealmaking, a path that will take him to the company’s top job when current president and CEO Ajay Banga transitions to executive chairman at the end of the year.

Intuit’s reportedly nearing a $7 billion deal to acquire Credit Karma, giving it an offering that could empower fintechs to more closely encroach on bank territory.

It’s an odd, and unwelcome, test of new retail technology that allows consumers to shop with minimal interaction with others.

The U.K.’s departure from the European Union is still causing lots of headaches for financial technology companies, but there’s now enough clarity to work with. And that often means operating from a new address.

Square is adding to its menu of services just as long-established competitors embed expanding payments technology into their own product mix.

Whether it’s an online sale or a corporate supply chain, the need to silently transfer and convert currencies is inspiring a mix of rapid product development and investment.

Point of sale credit can be an alluring option for consumers who are normally averse to taking on debt. The allure is also enough to draw support from one of Australia’s largest banks and the digital merchant acquiring giant Stripe.

Curve has decided to take advantage of the work done by the major mobile wallet brands by adding support for Apple Pay and the other major wallet apps. This addition is designed to make Curve, and the Pays, a workaround for banks that don’t support all three major mobile wallets.

Barclays, in an effort to counter digital fintechs in omnichannel merchant acquiring, is working with BigCommerce to offer multichannel transactions enhanced fraud detection to its nearly 60,000 merchants online and improve fraud detection.

As the incumbents gets bigger, the innovation that created the urgency continues unabated.

Transit systems have become an outlet for new payment technology for both challenger fintechs and incumbents, with terminal maker Ingenico targeting North America for open loop transit payments in the next year.

Progress in the trade war is welcome news for Mastercard’s ambitions in China, though the coronavirus jeopardizes the rosy outlook.

Facebooks’ Libra cryptocurrency project has been losing high-profile support for months, but the loss of Vodafone may be its most critical.

Two of the largest U.S. fueling station chains are adopting technology that separates the act of pumping gas from the transaction — and in the process, enabling that the purchase of fuel to become a gateway to in-car shopping.

Square's merchants have shown early interest in cryptocurrency payments, and if merchants accept this new concept, it could exist along with other Square services to support numerous use cases, including broader financial services.