Technology

Former Walmart payments executive Reed Luhtanen has been named the new executive director of the U.S. Faster Payments Council, an organization created a year ago to guide American faster payments initiatives.

Former NetSpend CEO Dan Henry has been named as the CEO of Green Dot, the Pasadena, Calif.-based prepaid card issuer and banking company.

For a growing number of people, the coronavirus has disrupted their daily lives in how they work, where they eat and how they spend their money. This drastic change has caused a boom in some sectors of the economy and a bust in other areas.

By embracing technology such as magnetic stripe when it seemed modern, the U.S. has been slower to catch up with much newer digital innovation, argues MSTS' Brandon Spear.

Targeted marketing efforts must go beyond explaining the functionality and instead educate consumers about all benefits that contactless can offer. Responsible communication should prioritize those who are at the highest risk for infection, says The Futurist Group's Demitry Estrin.

As companies move work off-site because of the pandemic, a host of issues have arisen around remote access, network monitoring and cybersecurity.

The coronavirus stimulus package has resurrected calls for the U.S. government to offer a central bank digital currency, public mobile wallets and postal banking—controversial ideas that are hard to pull off, but exist outside the U.S. and could dent interchange fees and private stablecoin projects like Facebook’s Libra.

The legislation sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, would require banks to offer the accounts so that consumers could easily access cornonavirus relief funds without turning to high-cost check cashers.

While financial institutions are encouraging customers to use their digital banking services rather than the branch or ATMs during the outbreak, attackers will also be looking to exploit this potential increased adoption of mobile banking and mobile payment apps, says OneSpan's Sam Bakken.

Britons stuck at home due to the coronavirus outbreak are hitting the online casinos, providing a boost for operators of virtual games such as blackjack and roulette.