Merchant

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.

Following its acquisition last November of Capital Bank in North Carolina, First Horizon will fund mortgage and small-business lending in low-income areas of the Southeast and expand its vendor relationships with minority-owned firms.

The $3.4 billion deal to take Verifone private is more than just an effort to strengthen the company. It's also a signal of how much the market has changed from the days when Verifone found itself scrambling to combat a newcomer called Square.

Although Visa Claims Resolution will require merchants to learn some new rules and routines, the changes are good news for merchants who know what to expect, writes Rafael Lourenco, executive vice president at ClearSale.

The Masterpass digital wallet will become embedded into the My Phillips 66 app later this year, enabling customers to pay at the pump or in the convenience store.

AI relies on catching the malware itself at a later stage, once it begins to operate in the system, and that's not enough to combat breaches and payment systems, according to Mordechai Guri, chief science officer at Morphisec.

The heads of Mastercard and Santander outlined the concrete steps their firms are taking to bring unbanked consumers into the financial system.

Struggling to find quality loans in the grueling Philadelphia market, Beneficial Bank is looking to accelerate growth by building a nationwide leasing firm from the ground up.

Brand and access to capital can suffer if companies don't take proper care of data from payments and other online activities, according to David Thomas, CEO of Evident ID.