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Visa gets in the e-sports game: Hoping to link its brand to the increasingly popular world of competitive gaming, Visa will sponsor SK Gaming, one of Europe's most successful e-sports teams. According to SK Gaming, the 12 month deal will involve Visa's financial backing, sponsoring SK Gaming uniforms for SK Gaming athletes at events and integrating Visa payments technology into the SK Gaming merchandise site. Visa and SK Gaming will also collaborate on content to accompany e-gaming events such as the Visa Vegas eRace, which will be hosted on SK Gaming's social network with an addressable market of about 6 million e-gaming fans. The sponsorship is an attempt to reach millennials, which are expected to be a $1.4 trillion market within the next three years.
Visa Inc. and contactless payment logos sit on a debit card in this arranged photograph, in London, U.K., on Friday, May 22, 2015. Credit and debit cards that can be used by tapping the reader are gaining users, and mobile apps are set to further boost the popularity of contactless paying. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
Tip payments become employee retention: To offset the cost of living in San Francisco, food delivery service Sprig is adding a tip payment feature to its app. TechCrunch reports the app will default to "no tip," with $1.50, $3 or $5 options, adding 100% of the tips go to the deliverers. The company, which is also offering full-time status to deliverers who work more than 35 hours per week--including benefits--is attempting to compete for workers in the "gig" economy, where most of the workers are part-time contractors. Uber, one of the market's most well-known companies, has long faced controversy over its tipping policies.
Door to door NFC: Fundraising has been a major part of mobile payment hardware for years, and is playing a big role at ING's innovation lab. Developers at the lab have built a box that allows people to make charitable donations with NFC and contactless payment cards. Finextra reports the bank found 52% of consumers do not have cash in their homes, which has contributed to a decline in door-to-door fundraising. The bank collaborated with Whydonate, which built the boxes in the lab in only 10 days, the tech website reported. The bank plans to introduce the boxes this year in the Netherlands as a pilot program.
It's still stealing if the house is unlocked: James Leslie Kelly, currently a resident of a Florida correctional institute, has sued Verizon Wireless for $72 million contending the company's "negligence" caused him to commit identity theft. According to news site grahamcluley, Kelly submitted a handwritten note accusing Verizon of causing him "substantial harm and damages, pain and suffering, the diminished capacity to enjoy life and emotional duress…" due to an apparent error at a store in 2015 that resulted in Kelly receiving access to another James Kelly's account--which the now-incarcerated Kelly used to make fraudulent purchases. A Tampa court has moved to dismiss the suit.
Mobile Payments: FinTech vs. Non-FinTech Patent Landscape IPWatchdog.com | Patents & Patent Law • Vivek Sharma In November 2016, European Payments Council (EPC) launched the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme. With this move, the payment coordination body of the European banking industry has placed over 34 European countries at the center-stage of mobile payments.
Walmart acquires ShoeBuy for $70M Business Insider • B.I. Intelligence Walmart has acquired e-commerce pureplay ShoeBuy for $70 million in a bid to bolster inventory on Jet.com and help boost overall online sales growth.
Why PayPal's Xoom is vital to its digital payments strategy Around the same time PayPal spun off from eBay Inc. to become its own company last year, it also took on the global money transfer provider Xoom. This acquisition may have been overshadowed by PayPal's bigger news, but it remains key to the company's post-eBay strategy.
The 'Uberization' of payments pressures security and e-channel strategies While EMV adoption is one of the major milestones in the payment industry, the card-not-present world has also been evolving rapidly where various new use cases and flavors of electronic commerce have emerged in the past five years.
6 payment innovations from CES The annual Consumer Electronics Show is full of big ideas, from Internet-connected toasters to AI toothbrushes. A few inventions revealed at this year's show could have big implications for payments.
Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., is asking the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to withdraw a corporate governance guidance proposal as FDIC chair Martin Gruenberg is set to testify in Congress later this week.
The Charleston-based company agreed to pay $267 million to acquire Piedmont Bank in Peachtree Corners, Georgia. It's United's 34th deal, but the first since 2021.
The Puerto Rico-based company's board of directors has given an additional title to COO Javier Ferrer, naming him president as of May 9. His career path closely resembles that of his boss, CEO Ignacio Alvarez.
