The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the Web:
Apple's API play
Apple has reportedly purchased an Italian startup named Stamplay, which won a contest for its use of Visa's APIs, according to
There are few details as to how Stamplay fits into Apple's strategy, though the startup has described its tech as enabling "ultimate API-based commerce experiences," the article states.
The deal could play into Apple's planned digital media announcement next week — which Apple apparently thinks is a bigger deal than its new iPads and AirPods, which the company updated this week with little fanfare.
Sharing too much
Facebook has confessed to leaving between 200 million and 600 million user passwords in plain text on a server accessible to over 20,000 of its employees, security expert
Hundreds of millions of those affected used Facebook Lite, which is designed for slow internet connections and low-end phones; tens of millions used Facebook's main site; and tens of thousands used Instagram, a unit of Facebook, according to a statement the social network released publicly.
Facebook will alert affected users but will not require password resets, since it has not found evidence that anyone intentionally accessed the servers to snoop for passwords, Krebs wrote.
Square's crypto cred
As much as Square and any other mainstream company boasts about supporting cryptocurrencies, most don't go so far as to pay their employees in anything but mainstream money. But that may soon change.
Square CEO
In a followup tweet, Dorsey called it "Square’s first open source initiative independent of our business objectives. These folks will focus entirely on what’s best for the crypto community and individual economic empowerment, not on Square’s commercial interests. All resulting work will be open and free."
Google Pay on eBay
Now that eBay no longer owns PayPal, it's warming to other payment options, including Google Pay.
EBay will support Google Pay in its mobile app, as well as the desktop and mobile Web,
From the Web
Financial Times | Thu March 21, 2019 - Senior Wirecard executives in Germany oversaw and approved four transactions totalling €2m that are at the centre of a fraud investigation by police in Singapore.
China Daily | Thu March 21, 2019 - The rapid growth of mobile payments in China has brought about a decline in bank self-service terminals including automatic, video and smart teller machines, initiating industry transformation.
TechCrunch | Thu March 21, 2019 - Lagos based online lending startup OneFi is buying Nigerian payment solutions company Amplify for an undisclosed amount.
More from PaymentsSource
Despite some significant advancements in the past two years, rifts are already developing in the U.S. move to faster payments.
Google's ambitious new gaming platform, Stadia, could fundamentally change the way people make purchases online, according to Daniel Wolfe, editor in chief of PaymentsSource.
Person-to-person payments have become table stakes for institutions looking to attract and retain younger customers. The service may also be one of the keys to keeping big-tech insurgents like Amazon at bay.
Lyft, the No. 2 ride-share competitor behind Uber, recently filed its Form S-1 Registration Statement with the SEC in preparation for an IPO, and the data it revealed is eye-popping.
There is a growing proliferation of social P2P technologies within the U.K. banking sector, but the market for such payments is vastly different from that in the U.S., where social payment apps have found a welcoming audience.
However, before we put all of our eggs in the blockchain basket, we need to examine whether the technology is ready to protect merchants from chargebacks and fraud, contends Suresh Dakshina, president of Chargeback Gurus.
