Kate Fitzgerald

Twenty companies have joined the “Visa Ready” list of suppliers offering streamlined connections to installment loans online and at the point of sale.

Citing inflation’s effect on rising payment card pricing, the senator convened a Judiciary Committee hearing to reassess rules that resulted in caps on debit transaction fees 11 years ago.

Representatives of the retailer community will face off against payment card network and bank executives over credit and debit card interchange during a Wednesday hearing to be chaired by Sen. Dick Durbin.

Raised by parents who taught school and coached high school kids, Alina Crisi never planned on a career in financial services. But her innate skill in managing people and organizations has powered her quick rise at PNC Bank.

Fewer new customers signed up during the first quarter as e-commerce sales momentum slowed and inflation rose, forcing the company to reduce its overall growth expectations for the year.

The financial services technology company is backing the first retail sportsbook connected to an MLB stadium, adding to its support for automated ticketing, concessions, staff compensation and loyalty. It's a broader combination the technology company hopes to replicate elsewhere.

The move gives the technology company a larger merchant network as it prepares to turn iPhones into payment acceptance devices.

Powered by a surge of bookings in March, travel and entertainment card spending at American Express rose 121% in the first quarter. The company also added 3 million accounts.

Financial institutions are confronting major compliance challenges given the demands of Russian sanctions as well as the explosion of online gaming transactions and marijuana sales.

In global news this week, The Bank of London named Tom Wood its next deputy chief executive for the United Kingdom market, Tencent began testing a digital wallet that supports transactions in e-CNY China's central bank digital currency, Uber's online order and delivery platform expanded its payment acceptance choices to include Rakuten Pay, and more.

The companies, which partnered to create a new digital shopping experience, say it made sense to focus on mom and pop stores that had to pivot to e-commerce during the pandemic. These businesses will be the first to get collaborative cloud-based tools including maps, marketing and payments.

As rising inflation and supply-chain shortages create new urgency for businesses to settle transactions quickly, more community banks and credit unions are recognizing the need for instant payments, according to The Clearing House.

Bread Financial — formerly Alliance Data — offers its first general-purpose Amex credit card to expand consumer finance options following a couple of tumultuous years.

People with a wealth of crypto holdings are loath to trigger a taxable event by cashing out. But they still represent a sizable market for the payments industry, according to the bank and fintech. "Demand for transacting in crypto is building, and we're preparing," said GreenBox CEO Fredi Nisan.

The banks that own the peer-to-peer payment network are reportedly considering a retail launch that could fend off rival payment methods — or simply cannibalize the sizable revenue issuers get from credit and debit cards.

To increase its share of global card spending through gig-economy fintechs and startups, Amex is extending its rewards through a partnership with digital issuing vendor i2c.

The newest version of the Mastercard gives users the most cash back for checking out with their PayPal accounts instead of for spending in specific categories.

The company provides incentives through the online statements of many large card issuers — but it faces more competition than ever from fintechs and "super apps." To stay in the game, Cardlytics is scooping up more data to sharpen its pitches.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau heard from proponents and critics of buy now/pay later lending amid its probe of five of the most prominent companies in the space.

ChargeAfter doesn't offer installment loans. Instead, it's tapping into the BNPL craze by bringing together the banks and merchants that are active in the market.