Mobile payments

The year — and the coronavirus pandemic — caused a dramatic shift in attitude. Many consumers and merchants now saw contactless cards and mobile payments as a way to move ahead without the germ fears that come with touching cash and PIN pads. And even after those fears subsided, the new habits stuck around.

PayPal’s Venmo has launched a new “Cash a Check” feature on its mobile app to some customers. The offering is made in partnership with Ingo Money and its parent, First Century Bank.

During the crises, most of the investment is going toward mature fintechs, creating more challenges for startups, says Global Processing Services' Richard Hodgson.

Safaricom Plc. is in negotiations with fund managers, investment banks and insurance companies to partner on a raft of mobile phone-based savings and wealth-management products, Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndegwa said in an interview in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital.

Moving into 2021, curbside will continue to be a significant element of the retail experience as customers grow to prefer the convenience. Getting a head start on streamlining checkout now will set your company up for success in the next digital decade, says Mobiquity's Brittany Mills.

Launching a card is complex, and fintechs have the answer for a more dynamic future, says Railsbank's Dov Marmor.

The U.S. debit networks have always been strong supporters of open standards created through open, consensus building, says the Secure Remote Payment Council's Paul Tomasofsky.

After 18 years heading the U.S. Payments Forum and Secure Technology Alliance, Randy Vanderhoof will retire at the end of the year.

Tokenization, click to pay and other advancements boost efficiency and safety, says the Electronic Payments Coalition's Jeff Tassey.

Paying on delivery with tokenization, biometric fingerprint cards, vein scanning or phone-to-phone with a variety of card payment options helps create a universe of consumer choice, convenience, personal preference and better fraud protection, says Radar Payments' Jane Loginova.

Looking to ease contactless payments for cash wary consumers and businesses, PayPal has launched QR code payment acceptance in its iZettle point-of-sale application for small businesses in the U.K.

Faster payments haven't always lived up to the hype and promise because of development and adoption stagnation in the U.S., but the idea of speedier transactions is becoming more popular.

In order for suppliers to recover and prepare for future growth, it’s critical to understand the complex nature of the corporate cash cycle, says AvidXchange's Denise Leleux.

Fintechs that focused on offering digital banking solutions likely saw a positive boost, and consumers’ increased use of mobile devices encouraged bank-fintech partnerships to keep up with the pace of innovation.

Tech pioneer Bill Gates praised India’s policies for financial innovation and inclusion, saying his philanthropic foundation is working with other countries to roll out open-source technologies modeled on the country’s implementation.

Once vaccines are widely available, some Americans may revert to old habits of paying cash and swiping cards, but many will stick to digital and mobile payment methods, says Paysend's Matt Montes.

Retailers and merchant acquirers need to adjust to new media in the new year, says Zycada's James Brear.

Whenever a technology moves into the payments or financial data ecosystem, it alerts fraudsters to probe it more intensely — and ultimately, figure out a way to use it as an attack vector.

The dramatic shift in consumer buying behavior sparked by the pandemic looks set to change the future of commerce for good, writes Joris Kroese, founder of Hatch.

In the push to get millions of cash-based micro- and small-business merchants to go digital, the two largest card networks are getting a boost from contactless payments' global surge.