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China's travelers draw more payment support: Fresh off adding a new platform designed for e-commerce,

Brave content payments: The market for online content payments is getting more crowded, with
Revolut embraces cryptocurrencies: U.K. payments startup Revolut, whose investors include tennis star
How is EMV doing? Fifty-nine percent of card-present transactions globally between July 2016 and June 2017 used EMV chips, reports EMVCo, which notes that this usage is up from 42% the prior year. The largest year-over-year increase was in the U.S., where 31.4% of card-present transactions were EMV, up from 7.2% the prior year. While the U.S. is still in the midst of its EMV migration—gas stations are expected to accelerate conversion in the next couple of years—EMV use in many other markets is near saturation. In Western and Northern Europe, more than 98% of card-present transactions are powered by EMV, 90% in Africa and the Middle East and Eastern Europe, 89% in Canada and Latin America, and 56% in Asia. The most recent data indicates EMV is becoming the foundation for contact and contactless card-present payments globally, according to a release from EMVCo, which said it would work with payment stakeholders to evolve the EMV specifications to promote interoperability for mobile and other emerging payment forms.
From the Web
The New York Times | Wed Dec 6, 2017 - When Bitcoin first entered the public consciousness a few years back, a handful of large companies like Dell and Expedia announced that they would begin accepting the virtual currency. But there weren’t many takers. This failure hasn’t bothered many of the people buying up Bitcoins in recent months, pushing the price to new highs — above $13,000 for one Bitcoin on Wednesday. These investors aren’t using their tokens to buy computers or to book trips. Instead, they are hoarding Bitcoins as if it were virtual gold, a new way to store money outside the control of any government or company.
Fortune | Thu Dec 7, 2017 - The biggest company in the world has a chip on its shoulder right now—and that’s probably a good thing. Why? The ever-growing challenge from online retailers is pushing Walmart to be a much better operator in the digital world. “For us, a big part of it is being paranoid,” said Walmart chairman Greg Penner on Thursday at the Fortune Global Forum in Guangzhou, China. “We’re at our best when we’ve got a competitor that’s really challenging us.” If so, the mega-retailer is doubly blessed: It now has two mammoth online retailers targeting its core business.
CNBC | Wed Dec 6, 2017 - Square is letting more people buy and sell bitcoin on its Cash app. The payments firm had tested the feature with a number of Cash users last month, and said in a tweet Wednesday that it planned to expand the feature to "more of our most active customers." Users can swipe right from their Cash Card page to buy bitcoin. The digital asset surged past $12,000 for the first time Wednesday. Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of both Square and Twitter, has said that he views bitcoin as more of an investment vehicle than a means of payment. Dorsey said he has invested in the cryptocurrency.
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Merchant account applications and underwriting are manual, intensive tasks for banks that beg for automation, but the need to handle higher-risk merchants make upgrades a challenge.
Recent data breach events in September 2017 in the U.S., involving the stock value drop of Sonic as well as Equifax are evidence of the negative impact of data breaches on the economic value of businesses. Clearly, they have become incidents of board level importance, writes Justhy Deva Prasad, chief data partner at Claritysquare.
As more companies embrace installment payments as a credit card alternative, Worldpay is pushing the model through a collaboration with Klarna.
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