Payments are slow, fees continue to increase, and merchants are increasingly feeling the pressure from holdbacks being imposed on them by acquirers. In the pandemic crisis, that's unacceptable, argues Nuapay's Nick Raper.

Fears of catching coronavirus during the payment process has given a sharp boost in usage and awareness of contactless payments since the pandemic began, according to a new survey from Mastercard.

The coronavirus pandemic is driving up demand for digital payments at B2B network Finexio, as suppliers opt for virtual cards for faster payments.

Think about all the people who started depositing their paper checks through a mobile app. Who tried that out and then thought, “Gee, I really preferred driving 15 minutes to the bank and waiting in a line”?

Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga says he is certain that science, medicine and innovation will lead the world out of the coronavirus pandemic, but there is little indication of when that will happen.

At the start of 2020, the overriding security concern when it came to payments was fraud. After all, before the days of the global coronavirus pandemic, no one had really viewed hygiene as being a particular selling point.

Barclays has experienced an incremental £264 million (about $330 million) in contactless spend in the month since it raised its per-transaction limit in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has created an aversion to cash and contact payments.

Paytronix, whose technology enables mobile payments and ordering at restaurants, has received $10 million in funding to help support increased demand for its services through the pandemic.

Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency has been climbing uphill from the start, losing many prominent partners along the way — though the recent addition of Checkout.com will partially make up for those setbacks.

Payments provider dLocal has added Google Pay, allowing merchants in emerging markets to accept the digital wallet.

Not everything is in decline. T&E approval processes need to be ready for spikes in invoices for streaming content, tele-meetings and remote technology rather than air travel and hotels, said AppZen's Uri Kogan.

The modern-day payment system was, over the last two decades, tailor-made for the shelter-in-place conditions many live and work under today.

The modern-day payment system was, over the last two decades, tailor-made for the shelter-in-place conditions many now live and work under today.

Like other businesses, hospitals have been forced to make instant emergency changes because of the coronavirus. But many hospitals are concurrently getting a rush of demand for service with an unclear revenue stream.

Today, in the era of choice, the U.S. remains unprepared for fast, digital, infrequent or one-time payments from one to many.

While an EMV transit system is a form of account-based ticketing (ABT), this assimilation is problematic, says OSPT's Jean-Philippe Wolyniec.

Merchant acquiring is a very face-to-face, sales-oriented business. And that culture has to change before any acquirers can convince their clients that they know how to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic.

For the payments companies that have and will continue to support businesses during our current phase of survival and necessity, these partnerships forged in the fires of adversity will lead to strengthened relationships and long-term loyalty during the growth phase that is yet to come, writes Wirecard's Kevin Brown.

Businesses have turned to workarounds to accommodate the coronavirus’ impact on brick-and-mortar stores, emergency measures that will likely become permanent in order for these businesses to survive into the future.

There is no denying that the upgrade to EMV will reduce certain types of fraud by noticeable amounts, but there should be no illusion that this is a “silver bullet” to a growing fraud trend, says The ai Corporation's James Crawshaw.