Acquirers

JCB International has entered an acquiring partnership with Riyad Bank to enable acceptance of JCB cards at merchant terminals and ATMs throughout Saudi Arabia.

Several large mobile point of sale projects are hitting the market at once to reach financially troubled retailers, with JPMorgan Chase making use of a three-year-old acquisition to push back against the technology firms that have been gobbling up small-business clients.

MagicCube has launched i-Accept, a software-based replacement for traditional terminals, allowing acquiring banks and financial services providers to offer merchants an option for contactless and PIN payment acceptance through Android devices.

Longtime finance entrepreneur Jackie Reses, who led Square Capital for the last five years, is leaving the company at the end of the month. Square has not yet named a successor.

Square is moving to help minority and underserved groups by investing $100 million in nonprofit financial institutions and Black-owned businesses.

London-based Rapyd has added Mastercard and Visa acceptance to its European payments platform to help merchants take advantage of retail’s shift to online.

Square is entering the earned wage access (EWA) fray, but it’s taking a tailored approach that aims to drive transaction volume within its Cash App.

FIS' purchase of Worldpay in 2019 required Ellyn Raftery, the company's chief marketing and communication's officer, to reshape its brand to showcase the strengths of both companies — all while a major global pandemic hastened her timeline.

If the mega payments deals of 2019 left the acquiring landscape somewhat scorched, the COVID-19 pandemic planted new seeds to allow ISOs to grow by quickly converting merchants to electronic payments.

Advocates of allowing merchants to add a surcharge to defray the cost of credit card interchange have had to overcome network bureaucracy, state laws and even ingrained habits among the merchants themselves.

Facing Wall Street analysts for the first time after the murder of George Floyd, CEOs of major payment companies joined other financial services firms in promising to improve fairness and opportunities for Black people and other underrepresented groups.

The coronavirus outbreak initially looked like it might torpedo U.K.-based Paysafe’s plan to expand in the U.S. in 2020. But several months into the pandemic, the payments conglomerate sees ways it can grow by helping bruised small businesses retool operations.

Square's gross payment volume tumbled by 15% year-over-year due to COVID-19’s impact, but revenue jumped as online selling rose, Cash App doubled in users and Square enabled almost $900 million in PPP loans.

The point of sale terminal industry was already under pressure to go digital before the coronavirus pandemic made this transition much more crucial to its survival.

Payment processor Elavon purchased Sage Pay four months ago, completing the acquisition on March 11. Two days later, Elavon's entire workforce was operating remotely as the coronavirus forced it into lockdown.

A letter from the National Taxpayers Union requested changes, such as requiring federal credit unions to fill out a certain IRS form for non-profits, before lawmakers considered easing member business lending limits.

Businesses affected by the pandemic are accepting online and touchless in-person payments from consumers with the help of technologies developed originally for B2B invoicing and payments.

The coronavirus outbreak is still very much an economic crisis, but that doesn't mean the best solution is to keep on selling.

Even the independent sales organizations that heeded the warnings of colleagues and experts for the past decade about not letting advancing payments technology pass them by weren't fully prepared for what the coronavirus pandemic would throw at them.

While a business seeking payments and business management services could piece together what it needs from a few different providers, it's increasingly easier to find fintechs and startups demonstrating how all services can funnel through one platform.