Merchant

Square’s growth strategy has always been to aim higher with products and services that benefit larger businesses than the ones it originally targeted with its mobile card reader. Its newest product diverges from that path.

Banks currently enjoy the pole position, but until they revamp and modernize their lending processes to better compete with the speed and convenience of nontraditional lenders, they will continue to lose market share, writes Trevor Dryer, CEO and co-founder of Mirador.

The program will focus on increasing lending to small and medium enterprises in Guatemala, Burkina Faso and Kenya.

Commercial and industrial lending rose 8% in the third quarter at the Cleveland bank, but other factors drove its double-digit gain in profits as overall loan growth was modest.

Intent on rapidly capturing the value and benefits of these new services, companies too often take a path of least resistance to cloud assessment and operational planning, writes Justin Yunag, chief digital officer, financial services for Atos North America Operations.

The U.K. market has reached a tipping point where consumers are conducting more in-store transactions using a contactless form of payment (card or phone) instead of a process that requires the card to be inserted into a POS terminal.

Main Street and Wall Street banks show strong earnings gains over last year; the president calls the Fed’s rate raising policies “my biggest threat.”

Marks & Spencer is the first major U.K. retailer to launch a mobile scanning and payment app in its stores. Several U.K. supermarket chains have launched pilots of cashierless and checkout-free mobile shopping, but have yet to roll out services.

The Dallas bank has picked a bad time to shift from cost-cutting to expansion as big banks are in a commercial lending funk.

Transaction Network Services has agreed to acquire Australia-based Advam in a move to strengthen the company's services, especially in the unattended payments and e-commerce fields.