Uber

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

On the surface, the Uber-Venmo partnership sounds like a coup for Venmo, getting its brand into the app that defined the ride-sharing category. But the partnership is a much bigger deal for Uber.

The ride-hailing giant is the largest retailer to accept Venmo payments to date, and the move is an indication of how the platform plans to make money.

As alternative apps and fintechs make progress on mobile payments and digital finance, banks will need to turn to third parties and partnerships to stay relevant, writes Paul Wilmore, chief marketing officer of Barclays U.S. consumer business.

As the gig economy and prepaid cards draw more people into mainstream banking, the card providers are increasingly competing with one another instead of simply moving people away from cash.

Barclays is one of the top five cobranded card issuers in the U.S., but because the bank has no branch network it must use unconventional marketing approaches — and unique technological innovations — to win customers.

“We know we've said this before, but we do feel we've put this behind us now,” Joseph DePaolo said Thursday.

Driving an Uber car isn't like many other jobs, and drivers' payments and expenses are also very different. Much of those differences are built on Green Dot technology, and the bank is ready to see if its platform can work for more than just Uber.

Companies that aspire to be the Uber of their industry should take a second look at the ride-sharing market, where Grab has become a lightning rod of payments investment and innovation.

A new cobranded Uber debit card from Green Dot’s GoBank unit gives drivers 3% cash back if they choose PIN entry when filling their tanks at ExxonMobil stations, affirming the persistence of PINs in an increasingly digital payments environment.

Uber is clearly doing more to get into payments, but is hampered by a heavy regulatory burden and self-inflicted wounds to its brand.

Uber Freight, the ride-hailing giant's load-sharing app for the trucking industry, is collaborating with fleet card giant Fleetcor on a payment card that offers drivers discounts for gas, engine maintenance and tires.

Putting money directly in people’s pockets requires more speed and efficiency through innovative technologies and payments systems, writes Deirdre Ives, managing director of Wirecard North America.

Uber’s announcement that it had been hacked in 2016 — resulting in the exposure of 57 million accounts — was shocking. The breach itself did not include payment information, but does that really matter from the consumer's perspective?

Merchants’ fates are inextricably linked to what customers want. So, as they continue to embrace frictionless experiences, merchants are under mounting pressure to deliver or risk losing out, writes Joseph Daly, COO of North American Payment Processing for Paysafe.

Many companies in financial services say they want to be the next Uber. But the reverse may also be true, with the ride-sharing company adding a cobrand card that can be managed from within the Uber app.

The third-party wallets don't market interoperability or share much data, frustrating the process of adding new riders.

Same-day and real-time payment products are designed for basic transfers that don't meet the more complex needs of Lyft's ride-sharing service, contends Ashwin Raj, Lyft's vice president of payments.

While many fintech companies and payment startups have good ideas, they don't yet understand the complexity of integrating into a community bank’s core banking system. That's where partnerships can help, writes Steven J. Ramirez, CEO of Beyond the Arc.

The gig or sharing economy has transformed and disrupted the global workforce. It has redefined what we should expect from our payments, writes Ralph Perdomo, a research analyst and writer at Nvoicepay.