Mastercard

KeyBank will deploy Mastercard's advanced transaction decisioning technology, boosting the card network's push into artificial intelligence-powered authorization.

Debit push payments proved an essential component of the ride-sharing boom, with many drivers opting to pay a fee for immediate funds throughout the day to cover fuel and other expenses. And the technology is finding fans in other niches as well.

After 20 years of working with a clunky, time-consuming 3-D Secure authorization method for online purchases, the wheels are finally in motion to get the upgraded 2.0 version in place for merchants and banks, granting access to more data for spotting fraud.

The U.S. companies agreed to reduce the average annual interchange rate in Canada by 10 basis points to 1.4 percent on cardThe new rate takes effect in 2020 and runs for five years. The government estimated that small and medium-sized businesses could save C$25,000 over the period.

Mastercard's strong performance is dampened by threats from trade disputes and Brexit, both of which could cause the company pain in the future.

Maybe it's coincidence, or maybe it's progress — in recent weeks, a number of large payment networks have suffered brief but widespread outages, particularly in Europe.

Mastercard and Worldpay are embarking on a strong push to promote Mastercard's Pay by Bank system, which will likely face a deluge of competition under the updated Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which took effect this year.

Digital payments are becoming a critical aspect of nearly every new service for merchants or financial institutions.

Large card issuers began banning cryptocurrency purchases on their cards in February. But fintechs are allowing consumers to purchase and invest in digital currencies, and they say the risk is minimal.

Worldpay and Mastercard have formed a global strategic partnership, expanding the ways consumers and merchants connect for online and in-app payments via Mastercard’s Vocalink business.