Mastercard

The recent explosion of activity around biometrics and other new forms of authentication should seem like a good thing for the development of connected commerce. But right now it's more of a wild west that needs to be tamed.

Companies like Visa and Mastercard make decisions about security in secrecy, without enough input from banks and merchants.

Nigeria’s ProvidusBank is the first in the region to launch a World Elite Mastercard, a credit card offering rewards and travel perks such as global concierge services.

Loot has been in development since 2014 and has raised a total of more than $7 million thus far.

As Mastercard, Discover and American Express all plan to drop signature authentication at the point of sale, Visa is largely mum on the topic. But does it really need to weigh in?

Assemble allows Mastercard partners or issuers to provide checking, budgeting and payment features, as well as additional money management.

American Express is falling in line with Mastercard and Discover in eliminating the signature requirement for authorization on all card transactions at the point of sale, starting in April of 2018.

Discover's shift starts in April 2018. Mastercard has also eliminated signatures for credit and debit card transactions.

The free pass becomes effective when a flight is expected to be delayed by two or more hours and the cardholder has registered flight details at least six hours prior to scheduled departure.

Because their businesses operate mostly with cash with little financial record keeping, the nearly 100,000 kiosk owners in Kenya have no way to qualify for traditional loans and lines of credit offered by banks. Plus, the kiosk owners have no mechanism to place stock orders directly with a wholesaler.