Mastercard

The payments industry is a hotbed of innovation, and many of its larger players are eager to claim patents on new developments.

The city would join San Francisco and Philadelphia among cities that prohibit stores and restaurants from only accepting electronic payments.

Even in mature markets, consumers may not feel very connected to their payment cards. This is making issuers more reliant on selling data-driven experiences over simple transaction processing.

Marqeta has been certified as a European card processor with Mastercard to help digital banks issue cards more quickly, signing Twisto as the first customer of the collaboration.

The fintech community was both surprised and energized by recent news that Visa has agreed to acquire Plaid, one of the nation’s largest fintech platforms for financial data analytics.

The acquisition will vastly expand Visa's platform, giving it nearly Amazon-like influence.

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.

The purchase price is double the fintech's valuation in a 2018 funding round.

Mastercard has appointed Raj Seshadri as president of its data and services organization, succeeding Kevin Stanton, who starts a new role as chief transformation officer.

Though many merchants remain wary of alienating their customers with fees, others now see an opportunity to recoup the growing costs associated with accepting plastic.