Michael Moeser

While not as large as the U.S. both in number of people and number of credit card owners, the U.K. remains a very lucrative market for issuing banks and card networks, as well as a host of alternative financial service providers catering to younger, underserved consumers.

Data security and infrastructure custodian Very Good Security (VGS) received a strategic investment from Visa, which has been spending heavily this week on fintech.

French mobile payments app Lydia has raised €40 million (about $45 million) in a Series B fundraising round led by Tencent Holdings, owner of WeChat Pay.

Mastercard is partnering with issuer processor EML and technology startup CleverCards to allow any business to send digital Mastercard payment cards directly to an employee’s or customer’s mobile wallet by SMS/text, email or any messaging app such as WhatsApp.

NatWest is partnering with prepaid card and business expense management provider Soldo to provide loans and working capital directly to Soldo's prepaid card users.

Paytm Payments Bank has issued over 3 million FASTags for the Indian national highway electronic toll system, making it the largest issuer in the country.

U.K. credit card lender NewDay, which issues co-branded cards for Amazon, Laura Ashley and Topshop, is expanding its technology offerings by acquiring installment lending platform Deko.

A strong economy in 2020 could lift the small-business card market, which is an important source of lending and payments for entrepreneurs and local merchants.

Despite the convenience wearable payments hold, there are still obstacles that remain. Some factors are cultural, such as cash usage, or even more deep seated in the human mind, such as concerns over security.

The Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against FleetCor Technologies and its CEO Ronald Clarke, alleging they used deceptive practices that defrauded its business customers of hundreds of millions of dollars in fees and false claims about fuel savings.