Mobile wallets

The trends were already pushing new payment experiences, which now seem less futuristic, says VeriTran's Omar Arab.

The threat has been exacerbated during the pandemic, as shelter in place orders forced consumers inside and businesses to close their physical doors, while simultaneously opening online ones, says Sift's Kevin Lee.

Coronavirus galvanized the use of NFC payments and QR codes, and PayPal wants to harness both trends for Venmo’s first credit card.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a clear incentive for advancing contactless and digital payment technology — but the systems merchants put in place today could create new problems down the road.

Many companies seek ways to maintain their payments and collections functions centrally when expanding overseas, whether regionally or globally wherever possible, to avoid fragmented processes and technology, says Standard Chartered's Tarek Elyafi.

Argentina’s Ualá, the mobile payments startup backed by heavyweight billionaire investors George Soros and Steve Cohen, is launching its prepaid card operations in Mexico.

Embedded finance isn't new, but the influence of online payments and banking creates vast new scale, says Kunai's Sandeep Sood.

The startup said its Marqeta Tokenization-as-a-Service enables banks or fintechs to instantly add credit, debit or prepaid cards to a digital wallet by directly managing tokens instead of going through a third party.

COVID-19 has accelerated changes in payments behavior that would otherwise have taken years to occur, laying the foundation for global expansion post-pandemic. But for different parts of the world, this digital transformation had very different outcomes.

The agency issued an interpretive letter on stablecoins two months after permitting institutions to provide wallet services for cryptocurrency holdings.

The pandemic and subsequent economic crisis have raised the stakes, since the government’s role in recovery and how stimulus is delivered — and policies impacting the goals of card and technology companies — will be largely determined by the philosophy of leadership.

The Trump administration has barred the use of TikTok and WeChat inside the U.S., including a direct ban on WeChat Pay, setting up potential retaliation against U.S. companies that could interrupt international payment flows.

The humble QR code — invented for automobile manufacturing in 1994 — had been on the rise as a payment method for many years, but the pandemic expanded its use in the U.S. in some unforeseen ways.

In countries where the use of cards is less prevalent, other digital payment methods, particularly mobile wallets, are proliferating, changing the payments landscape rapidly and radically, says Standard Chartered's Tarek Elyafi.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced retailers and consumers alike to consider the benefits of shopping via a mobile app, providers of shopping and loyalty apps were seeking partnerships with security vendors to deploy fraud prevention technology.

Donor management provider Pushpay has added new software that will help churches target donations through digital channels while providing more interactions and communication within congregations.

Walmart’s membership service undercuts Amazon Prime on price and offers myriad perks, including access to streamlined checkout and deliveries — two areas where Walmart has struggled in the past.

Remitly has added 11 new mobile wallets to its network, almost doubling its reach to 300 million consumers, to meet demands for cash alternatives amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Viva Wallet's cloud-based payments service will soon reach merchants in 23 European countries through an expanded acceptance agreement with Japan’s JCB card network. The move comes a few weeks after the Greek fintech became a bank.

Unicomer Group, Latin America’s equivalent of Best Buy, has teamed up with YellowPepper to develop a digital credit app that acts as a financial services center for underbanked and unbanked consumers.