Kate Fitzgerald

When the coronavirus pandemic forced teachers and students to move classroom learning online this year, school districts and educators suddenly faced a raft of challenges around handling new expenses for tools needed for cyber education.

Mastercard is entering the cashierless checkout fray with a spate of pilots it’s launching at convenience stores and drive-through QSRs including Circle K, Dunkin’ and White Castle.

Visa is readying its platform for major disruptions by adding artificial intelligence to its neural network so legitimate card transactions will be processed normally in case of a system outage.

Socure, which applies machine learning to spot identity fraud, has raised $35 million in a new funding round from venture capital funds and banks.

Viva Wallet's cloud-based payments service will soon reach merchants in 23 European countries through an expanded acceptance agreement with Japan’s JCB card network. The move comes a few weeks after the Greek fintech became a bank.

The “Just walk out” technology Amazon Go stores introduced a few years ago was revolutionary for shopping and payments, but it’s a model most supermarkets can’t easily copy, according to NCR.

Jo Jagadish, who joined TD Bank in April as head of commercial products and payments innovation, spent her childhood moving from country to country, so she's used to a world without borders — the kind of world emerging from the capabilities of fintech and demands of the pandemic.

The company said it will use the new funding to accelerate its growth.

Major payment companies have long looked on at cryptocurrencies as too risky to touch, but too tempting to ignore. Mastercard's latest move indicates that the card brands are ready to make a firm pitch for crypto spending.

It took years for NFC payments to gather momentum in the U.S., with merchants initially dragging their heels to enable contactless technology at payment terminals and banks waiting until 2018 to begin the slow rollout of NFC-enabled cards.

The shift to electronic payments during the coronavirus has led to a notable increase in in-app debit card payments—particularly via Apple Pay—along with higher levels of direct debit and P2P debit card transfers.

Facing Wall Street analysts for the first time after the murder of George Floyd, CEOs of major payment companies joined other financial services firms in promising to improve fairness and opportunities for Black people and other underrepresented groups.

Paystand's Zero Card leverages its proprietary blockchain-based bank-to-bank payments network in combination with a virtual Mastercard.

The coronavirus outbreak initially looked like it might torpedo U.K.-based Paysafe’s plan to expand in the U.S. in 2020. But several months into the pandemic, the payments conglomerate sees ways it can grow by helping bruised small businesses retool operations.

Womply is joining the growing niche of providers offering card-based bill-payment services for cash-strapped small-business owners.

Most consumers globally have changed the way they pay to avoid coronavirus risk, and almost half say they’re using cash less often since the pandemic began, according to a study from Visa.

With its acquisition of Montreal-based Mobeewave, Apple has placed a long-term bet on where it sees the payments industry headed.

The pandemic’s physical distancing requirements appear to have accelerated transaction volume and overall use of Zelle, the P2P app operated by the bank-owned Early Warning Services LLC.

TD Bank has hired Jyotsana “Jo” Jagadish to head commercial operating products and payment innovation, where she will oversee TD’s expanding fintech partnerships.

Vending machines for years have been gradually shifting to contactless payments, but coronavirus has sparked changes in the machines’ core technology to enable hygienic use with social distancing.