The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the web:
Bon voyage
Buy now/pay later company Affirm and vacation rental service Vacasa are collaborating to allow vacationers to plan and finance future vacations.
Travel has slowed substantially during the pandemic, but the travel industry is anticipating pent-up demand as restrictions ease.
Vacasa contends it had record bookings in January, and adding Affirm allows travelers to book larger vacation packages and finance the cost over several monthly installments.
Late launch
Apple has released Apple Pay in Mexico, following testing and delays from an expected launch window in fall 2020.
Citibanamex and Banorte are the supporting banks at launch, though other Mexican banks are expected to come on board shortly, reports
Cross-border central currency
Central banks in China, UAE, Thailand and Hong Kong are working on a central bank digital currency that will connect the nations for real-time cross-border payments.
Working through the BIS Innovation Hub in Hong Kong, the central banks will first develop a proof of concept to determine how each nation's traditional and digital currency will fit into the broader system, reports
International interoperability is considered one of the main challenges as numerous nations work on central bank digital currencies through projects that are mostly native to each nation.
Crypto corral
Square has increased its bitcoin investment by about 3,300 bitcoins, or somewhere between $155 and $160 million.
That brings the total bitcoin in Square's treasury to about $390 million, according to
From the web
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL | Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Swipe fees, which retailers, restaurants and other merchants pay, are often higher on online orders. Visa and Mastercard plan to raise swipe fees for some types of online purchases.
ARS TECHNICA | Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Back in 2017, we reported on the bizarre story of the Long Island Iced Tea Company rebranding itself as the Long Blockchain Corp. This happened at the peak of the last big blockchain boom, with bitcoin's price approaching $20,000 and dubious initial coin offerings raising millions of dollars. The name change led to an immediate tripling of the company's stock.
ENGADGET | Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Google has informed US users of the older Google Pay app on Android, iOS and the web that they'll need to move to the new app to continue sending, receiving and transferring money. The original version will lose that feature on April 5th, as well as the ability to access recent activity and transactions. Google released the new, overhauled app in November.
More from PaymentsSource
For many years, PaymentsSource’s Most Influential Women in Payments has been celebrating top-performing senior executives. Now we invite you to take part in a new opportunity to advance the mission of gender parity.
The retailer combines WeChat, digital checkout and coupons to reach a wider market, says Azoya's Franklin Chu.
The U.K. got an earlier start on open banking implementations, prompting European merchants and fintechs to turn to payments-as-a-service providers for rapid deployment.
As Dan Henry completes his first year as Green Dot's president and CEO, he warns that the bank's success in 2020 has set it up for greater challenges in 2021.
Much of this technology, such as the Zelle P2P network, is already in place, and the challenge now is to make sure it's visible — and ultimately useful — as customers continue to change the ways they interact with the bank as the pandemic wears on.
About half of U.S. workers received an unexpected financial expense each month for 12 months overlapping most of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many resorting to bouncing checks or payday loans to cover the costs.
Payments technology provider NMI is acquiring USAePay to boost its multichannel service offerings for its independent sales organization network, as well as bank and fintech innovation partners.
Displaced workers are turning to the gig economy in the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, and will likely continue to do so.
Banking and merchant payment processing systems are difficult to obtain for cannabis plant-touching businesses like dispensaries and cultivation operations. Credit card networks like Mastercard and Visa have made it clear they will not support federally illegal cannabis transactions in any capacity. Nothing but federal legalization is likely to change that policy.
The organizations are working to deliver $1 million in grants to help some of the most treasured and vulnerable restaurants in the U.S. get through the pandemic.
The lack of federal legalization creates processing challenges, but there are emerging solutions, says Fincann's Nathaniel Gurien.
Small shops are facing more competition online. Combined with the impact of Brexit, this has made it even more important for businesses to sell overseas.
Ripple's woes with the Securities and Exchange Commission caused MoneyGram to step back from its partnership with the blockchain ledger provider, but an explosion of its online money transfer growth is making up for what it lost in dissolving the partnership.
A decade after its launch, London-based TransferWise has changed its name to Wise. The move comes as the cross-border remittance firm prepares for an IPO later this year.
