The Facebook Inc. executive responsible for the embattled Libra cryptocurrency said he doesn’t fault companies that pulled out of the project, adding that he’s optimistic more organizations will sign on despite intense opposition from politicians who seem to fear financial innovation.

Even the homeless are getting on board with contactless payments, through a new U.K. wide initiative between Swedish payments company iZettle and the Big Issue Foundation, which enables homeless people to become street vendors by selling its its Big Issue magazines.

American Express is adding a new dimension to its year-old partnership with PayPal by giving credit card customers more options for splitting a restaurant check and paying with loyalty points.

Wirecard AG fell the most since February in Frankfurt after a news report said it found repeated questionable accounting practices at the German payments firm.

Consumer banking is expected to offset the banks’ underperforming Wall Street units; the defections of Visa, Mastercard and Stripe threaten the cyrpto project’s viability before it starts.

South Africa’s payments industry wants to displace cash by enhancing its B2B-focused digital payment system to add instant low-value mobile P2P transactions.

Banks shouldn't let the legal and regulatory hurdles deter them, attorney Felix Shipkevich says.

The facial recognition development trail is dotted with starts and stops in its search for consumer adoption, from Mastercard's "selfie pay" to Apple's 3-D facial scan tests and the Federal Trade Commission's approval of biometric authorization.

Payroll advance provider Branch has partnered with Mastercard and Evolve Bank & Trust to offer a debit card that allows hourly workers to instantly access a portion of their earned wages ahead of their periodic paycheck.

Italian banking group Intesa Sanpaolo has made a €7 million ($7.8 million) investment in MatiPay, an Italian cash acceptance network that leverages wireless vending machines.

Rapid-fire acquisitions, partnerships and investments in the likes of Uber, Lyft and Grab are transforming these ride-sharing providers. And much of this activity is built on their ability to handle payments seamlessly as part of the experience.

Cash is not dead, but the burdens of ensuring access threaten to break long-standing ecosystems that sustain traditional payments.

The Federal Reserve’s FedNow instant payments system will dramatically speed up payment processing, essentially allowing people and businesses to receive money in their accounts within seconds of a transaction, says the Retail Industry Leaders Association's Austen Jensen.

Any entity questioning Libra runs up against the longstanding legal precedent set by private label gift and GPR, and myriad other prepaid account offerings, says payments consultant and researcher Richard Crone.

Libra poses risks not only to global financial systems, but also to existing companies’ broader payments business, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii said in letter on Tuesday to Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and Stripe Inc.

The Swiss National Bank and stock exchange SIX will jointly explore how to make central bank digital money available for the trading and settlement among financial market players.

Companies like Stripe provide a needed source of capital, but should expand lending beyond their existing base, says Become's Eden Amirav.

Rather than homing in on specific methods to accommodate real-time payment processing, Wells Fargo realized a mix is the best bet to avoid inadvertently leaving parts of its client base in the dark.

Visits and conversion rates are important, but it’s also important to monitor what happens between the moment someone enters your website and the moment they decide to make a purchase, says Robin Reodica, product management executive at Bank of America Merchant Services.

Contactless payment transaction volume is soaring in Canada to the point where total credit card transaction volume is edging out debit card transactions for the first time because many consumers are using credit cards to tap and pay.