Mobile payments

PSCU also found in its second-annual payments study that Americans were turning to debit cards over credit cards.

As merchants and issuers add mobility for staff, they must come to grips with the shortcomings of mobile security, says Blue Cedar's John Aisien.

In an interview with Bloomberg on Friday, Vestager confirmed that regulators are taking a closer look at potential competition issues, describing alerts she’s seen to set up Apple Pay on her own handset.

Venmo’s P2P social payment app has become a major part of PayPal’s retail strategy, a play that’s getting a boost from a Synchrony co-branded credit card.

The U.K.-based fintech says that a recent crowdfunding campaign shows demand for its product, even though the amount it raised is well below funds obtained from VCs.

Technology companies like Square and Stripe have nimbly captured small-business share from banks that often overlooked the segment. Royal Bank of Canada is trying to respond through a mix of merchant services, tied to the national debit system and incentive marketing.

Digital services are gaining momentum, and traditional plastic cards are adding innovation to keep up after years of lagging, says FIME's Stéphanie El Rhomri.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Instagram understands it’s not just about giving users what they want, but also when they want to see it.

Samsung Pay users can use the app to send funds across borders to recipients with a bank account through a new service powered by Travelex.

Recent reports that counterfeit card fraud is markedly down in the U.S. since the introduction of EMV chip cards in 2015 is fantastic news, except for retailers that also sell goods sells online. In that case fraud has merely moved from an in-store payment attempt to a card not present (CNP) one. For e-commerce only stores the rise in payments fraud attempts has been a deluge.

A shared cart that carries a consumer’s preferred form of payment throughout their purchase journey, regardless of which channel they begin and end with, can be a real differentiator for retailers.

More states are adopting mobile driver’s licenses, sparking hope of creating a shareable consumer-driven digital ID to power e-commerce and data sharing among banks, fintechs and merchants.

How PayPal obtained a payments license to operate in China — an achievement that’s long frustrated the biggest U.S. banks and payments networks — sheds light on the unique challenges of breaking into the world’s biggest payments market.