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Fintechs connect
PayPal and Intuit are two of the first nonbank institutions to win permission to distribute loans through the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program under the CARES Act to help smaller companies ravaged by the effects of COVID-19.
PayPal will leverage existing tools and data it uses to provide loans and cash advances to entrepreneurs and other businesses, according to a press release.
Intuit’s QuickBooks Online Payroll customers may begin applying for PPP federal relief loans this week, and the company plans to expand the ability for other QuickBooks customers to apply in the coming days, according to a press release.
Cross River Bank, Divvy, Kabbage, Fundera and Veem are among other fintechs that enable small-business customers to apply for PPP funds,
Direct link
The IRS deposited the first batch of stimulus checks into eligible citizens’ accounts on Saturday, April 11, the agency announced on
The IRS also launched a Get My Payment site at IRS.gov for eligible taxpayers who filed a tax return in 2018 or 2019 but did not provide bank account details to submit that information to receive a stimulus check. This week the IRS expects to roll out a second tool, available by April 17, to track the status of electronic payments and checks mailed to those who did not supply bank account details. These tools will be accessible via any browser, the IRS said in a press release.
Staying in
Fraud management service Kount has launched a service tracking specific online shopping trends during the pandemic to help e-commerce operators watch for fraud. Overall e-commerce volume has stayed about the same, but certain merchandise categories are spiking, Boise, Idaho-based Kount said in a press release.
Sales of wine and craft items were up more than 100% in March, while home office furniture and electronics sales rose 54% and vitamin sales increased 43%, Kount said.
Hand sanitizer sales spiked more than 1000% during March, while toilet paper sales were up 145%. Firearms saw an 89% increase, Kount said. Kount’s tracking service will be updated weekly based on data from 32 billion online interactions across 6,500 e-commerce companies.
All access
Global e-wallet provider Sticpay is launching a prepaid card to operate within its e-wallet and work within UnionPay's international network to reach 177 countries.
London-based Sticpay is targeting consumers in Japan, China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, but consumers in any country may order the Stic Card after verifying their identity, according to a press release.
All users of Sticpay's global e-wallet are eligible to order the prepaid card from any country around the world after verifying Know Your Customer documents.
From the web
COINTELEGRAPH | Sun April 12, 2020
Square’s Cash App is allowing U.S. citizens and residents who don’t usually file a tax return to direct forthcoming government stimulus payments to the mobile payments application.
TECHCRUNCH | Thu April 9, 2020
Canadian company Clearbanc has launched Clearbanc Runway, a new financing product to help startups secure money.
KREBS ON SECURITY | Fri April 10, 2020
The possibility that fraudsters may intercept payments to individuals seems very real, given the relatively lax identification requirements of this non-filer portal and the high incidence of tax refund fraud in years past.
More from PaymentsSource
The $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package and other government moves are designed to provide a lifeline for small businesses, but they also create complications as businesses must quickly accumulate payment records and other information to apply for the loans.
PINs and passwords are increasingly viewed as insufficient to tackle this new standard, says Fingerprints' Jonas Andersson.
Fintechs, startups and bank-led projects were already working to excise generations of inefficiencies out of supply chains. The coronavirus has heightened the need for smooth payments.
The coronavirus e-commerce push is likely to be permanent as consumers get used to digital payments, but that also gives rise to new fraud threats.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) reports digital wallet users spent a AUS$1 billion (about $630 million) in March 2020, a high for the bank that's part of an acceleration to digital wallets and contactless cards during the coronavirus crisis.
WEX has retooled its corporate payments solution team, hiring former Mastercard exec Mark Acquilina as senior vice president of product and strategy for the unit.
Cryptocurrencies in their archetypal form operate via cryptographic arrangements, which inherently circumvent identification requirements. One core differentiator between a central bank digital currency (CBDC) and pre-existing digital currencies, such as bitcoin, is that a CBDC might conceivably be implemented to operate in tandem with a digital identity system.
With the EMV liability shift date for automated fuel dispensers (AFD) looming, subject to any last-minute changes, we are seeing major changes at fuel sites across the U.S. With close to 150,000 active fuel sites in the U.S. alone, there are a huge number of individual pumps that will need to be upgraded to accept chip and pin cards.
