Merchant

Visa and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are in the middle of a 10-year merchant services agreement that gives Chase merchants certain advantages with the expected goal of favoring Visa card volume. But it’s not an exclusive arrangement.

When the coronavirus pandemic forced teachers and students to move classroom learning online this year, school districts and educators suddenly faced a raft of challenges around handling new expenses for tools needed for cyber education.

Mastercard is entering the cashierless checkout fray with a spate of pilots it’s launching at convenience stores and drive-through QSRs including Circle K, Dunkin’ and White Castle.

With consumers and merchants alike sharing the need to be paid faster, the case for adopting real-time payments globally has quickly advanced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

One thing that many parents are finding unusual this year is the amount of money being spent on school supplies during the coronavirus crisis — it’s actually going up.

The Minneapolis company’s partnership with the Black Business Investment Fund and other community development financial institutions is an example of how banks can fulfill multimillion-dollar pledges aimed at closing the racial wealth gap.

If the mega payments deals of 2019 left the acquiring landscape somewhat scorched, the COVID-19 pandemic planted new seeds to allow ISOs to grow by quickly converting merchants to electronic payments.

Afterpay has entered into an agreement with NBQ Corporate SLU to acquire Pagantis SAU and PMT Technology SLU for €50 million (about $59 million) to expand into France, Italy and Spain — a direct challenge to Klarna, one of the dominant European buy now, pay later (BNPL) providers.

Checkout-free retail is still not ready to move out of tiny spaces, though Amazon’s trying to accelerate progress through a trio of initiatives that have come to light over the past few weeks.

The company will offer retail installment loans up to $40,000 through a partnership with Mastercard's Vyze unit.