Fintech

To remain competitive, retailers must always have one eye on the future. Mobile wallets offer a strategic platform for retailers to harness and promote emerging payment models, writes Julian Wallis, retail director at Rambus.

Banks and credit unions will have to re-engineer a number of systems to meet the eclectic demands of the generation born roughly in the last 10 to 20 years.

While businesses' ability to transact internationally has expanded, the act of settling payments has gotten more complex, expensive and time-consuming. That means opportunity for companies that can provide solutions.

Banks will have to re-engineer a number of systems to meet the eclectic demands of the generation born roughly in the last 10 to 20 years.

PayPal and Walmart are offering a cash-in and cash-out service from PayPal accounts within Walmart stores. It's the first time Walmart, one of the founders the defunct Merchant Customer Exchange, will accept a third-party mobile wallet.

Worldpay is combining the Worldpay Bankout solution, which will now deliver to 154 direct bank disbursement destinations, and Worldpay FastAccess enabled by Visa Direct.

The payment landscape is still very fragmented with local solutions holding their own against global giants and new technologies such as AI and blockchain keeping the payments market very enterprising, writes Eva Murphy Ryan, trade development executive for financial services and technology at Enterprise Ireland New York.

The company agreed to buy Mainland Bank for nearly $20 million in stock.

For all the media attention around the best options for cardholders when making transactions abroad, there's little focus on the lack of transparency on the costs involved with making a purchase in the local currencies where Visa, Mastercard and the issuers manage the conversion, argues Gino Ravaioli, chairman of the DCC Forum.

Called Bill Pay Exchange, it will power instant bill pay for consumers from their bank or credit union accounts in a matter of seconds versus days when using the traditional bank bill pay ACH network.