The race to provide coronavirus relief for small businesses is opening new routes to fund payments, including underused credit lines.

As merchants are challenged to adapt their business just to survive, and consumers push for greater control over where and how they spend, the payments industry is in a position to align the various needs, says Splitit's Brad Paterson.

The agency sought industry feedback on a host of potential changes to ensure that rules are “sufficiently flexible and clear in light of the technological advances that have transformed the financial industry over the past two decades."

Bankers have become more uncertain about how to serve marijuana businesses owing to confusion about which states deem them essential.

Innovating is tough even in ordinary times, but during the coronavirus pandemic many payments startups had to dig into deeper reserves of creativity and resilience to meet expectations.

The challenges may seem daunting, financial institutions and fintechs must focus on identifying meaningful opportunities based on the financial priorities of consumers and businesses to help them weather these difficult times.

Recent steps that would help nonbank lenders enter the traditional banking system, like a proposal clarifying the industrial loan company charter, are needed but face strong opposition.

Many of the payment innovations of the past decade got an early start in Canada, building a base of users and habits the nation hopes will make the pivot to post-coronavirus commerce easier than other markets.

The new product, which comes as an earlier partnership with the online lender Kabbage is sputtering, figures to appeal to companies with tight cash flows.

New technologies can provide recommendations and proactively engage with customers and members to help them pay their bills or pay friends and proactively manage their financial well-being, says Payrailz's Mickey Goldwasser.