Merchant

As upstart companies mature, they face pressure to develop deeper relationships with their customers. That is leading some to offer to a wider range of products, including deposit accounts.

Orchard Platform Markets, a provider of lending data and services backed by the former heads of Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, is set to be acquired by the small-business lending platform Kabbage, said people familiar with the deal.

Investors are growing worried about lackluster loan growth this year at community banks.

DCC is popular with payment processors and merchants because it almost effortlessly boosts profits, gouging an often one-time consumer instinctively comfortable and receptive to paying in his familiar home currency, writes Eric Grover, a principal at Intrepid Venture.

A plan to bring in banks was created right after last summer’s hurricane devastation, but the magnitude of those storms, government dawdling on the issue and lenders’ reluctance to participate are key reasons zero loans have been made under the program.

India’s Unified Payment Interface is a model that other developing economies can emulate, as they look to move away from cash-centricity and overhaul their own payments infrastructure in pursuit of speed, security, auditability and financial inclusion, writes Anoop Villait, managing director of corporate development at Transpay.

The acting director wants to gut the agency, which would harm both consumers and entrepreneurs.

Questions about the CFPB’s structure, high-profile enforcement actions and the acting director’s rift with Elizabeth Warren could dominate two days of hearings on Capitol Hill.

The Middle East presents a rare opportunity for digital payment innovators to access a populous and high-spending region with good levels of connectivity, writes Tom MacDonald, financial and business services practice head for Global Growth Markets.

It's no surprise that London topped the chart of "Cashless Capitals" in a recent study, considering its status as a major fintech hub of the U.K. But this wasn't enough to make it the country's contactless capital.