John Adams

Card networks, fintechs and Walmart have started major account-to-account payment initiatives in the past few weeks.

The card lender took full control of Swisscard from UBS; the Financial Conduct Authority is bringing installment lending regulations in line with other consumer financial products; and more payments news from around the world.

Stripe, Circle and Ripple all made deals in recent days to boost scale for a form of cryptocurrency that has struggled to reach mainstream consumers and businesses.

The credit card lender's earnings beat analyst expectations, but it also reported weakness in spending and higher late payments. Amex boss Steve Squeri said consumers are "resilient" and credit remains strong.

Visa and Mastercard face pressure to lower payment charges globally, while the London-based fintech receives more fraud reports than the country's largest banks.

The giant card network and the global bank are combining their scale to boost real-time cross-border transfers as fintechs target the market.

By offering its authentication technology to other issuers, the credit card lender can compete with payment networks and mobile wallets. But it will have to persuade other banks to get on board.

A court said the technology giant must be less restrictive at checkout. The move will likely lower transaction fees, but it still won't be easy for competitors to grab market share.

The money transfer service and the U.K.'s Post Office were on the verge of an extension. Then the hack came. This and updates from Worldpay, Mastercard and JCB in our global payments roundup.

Interchange reductions for small Canadian businesses join global efforts to curb swipe fees, prompting Visa and Mastercard to diversify