The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the Web:
Park the car
Mobile parking technology company PayByPhone has added its payment services to Amazon Echo Auto, which connects to Alexa through mobile devices and plays through car speakers. The integration will provide users access to 90,000 skills, including the command "Alexa, ask PayByPhone to start parking" to commence a parking session, including meter payments.
Cross-border tuition
International
Since the integration went live at the start of June, SLC has used Flywire to collect from more than 40 countries, including Australia, Canada, Chile, Finland, Spain and the U.S. Consumers access an online portal to set up and make payments directly to SLC via Flywire.
Flywire also recently partnered with
Consolidation
Payment technology company Celero has made two acquisitions, agreeing to buy Elmhurst Financial Services and Tandem Innovative Payment Solutions.
Both companies are payment processors, and will provide scale for Celero, bumping its market to 25,000 merchants and $10 billion in annual payments volume.
The deals come amid a wave of
Following rewards
Google is expanding a feature to support incentive marketing that's tied to consumers "following" stores on the search engine.
The feature builds on an existing Google service that allows consumers to follow stores and restaurants to get updates, products or offers, reports
Google has also added a "short name" and URL for a store's Google profile (such as @Toms-restaurant), which is designed to make it easier for consumers to find the business in a search.
From the Web
CoinGeek | Thu June 20, 2019 - If Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook thought that the world would embrace its Libra stablecoin without hesitation, they were completely wrong. The U.S. has already stated that it wants Facebook to hold off on the project and is requesting that the company’s executives attend a hearing in Washington, D.C. to clear the air.
Fox Business | Thu June 20, 2019 - Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan spoke this week about embracing digital payment transactions while moving toward a cashless society. The CEO spoke about Zelle, Google Pay and Apple Pay and its increasing popularity. He said Bank of America “will continue to move” toward digital banking transactions.
Reuters | Thu June 20, 2019 - The U.S. Department of Justice announced criminal charges accusing four former executives of the Canadian payment processor PacNet Services Ltd of running an international mail fraud scheme that cheated U.S. victims out of tens of millions of dollars a year.
More from PaymentsSource
Large U.S. banks and merchants are finally working together to support contactless payments. But two of retail's biggest players aren't on board, and for good reason.
An acquisition as large as Fiserv's deal to buy First Data has lots of moving parts, but one big piece may be a new First Data product that's designed to improve the vexing problem of payment approvals.
WASHINGTON — The Senate Banking Committee has scheduled a hearing for next month to examine Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency, just one day after the social network unveiled Project Libra in its latest foray into the financial system.
First Financial Bancorp. has agreed to buy the capital markets firm Bannockburn Global Forex for about $110 million. Both companies are in Cincinnati.
