Payment cards

The startup now has five bank partners and equity financing from four investment entities.

Wells Fargo & Co. has committed to converting all of its payment cards to contactless technology, beginning with credit cards and adding contactless debit cards this summer.

Once Apple looked at the state of its existing ecosystem, it identified a space it could uniquely deliver on, and activated the partners needed to make it come to fruition — a perfect example of the concept of ecosystem enablement, argues Frank Kenney, director of market strategy for Cleo.

U.S. lawmakers are not enthusiastic about the cashless trend being driven by the likes of Amazon Go, sweetgreen, and numerous other merchants of all sizes.

First it was the signatures. Now the biggest U.S. banks could be looking to get rid of card numbers, too.

Blockchain technology provider Yosemite X is following the spirit of the mega-retailers' disbanded Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) joint retailer venture, but on a local level.

The rewards card offered by the fintech Stash will let users accumulate stock of companies at which they frequently shop. The company said Tuesday that it has raised $65 million from investors and will offer the card in partnership with Green Dot.

Banks and Apple Pay have not always had easy partnerships, but a hot market for co-branded cards gives Goldman Sachs a chance to advance its consumer ambitions and Apple an opportunity to offset slumps in device sales.

In the tug-of-war over merchants refusing either cash or cards embroiling local governments in New Jersey, New York City and Philadelphia, the Iowa State Fair is taking the middle ground. Beginning next year, all fair vendors will be required to accept cash, cards and contactless payments through First Data’s Clover devices.

While many public policy initiatives focus on the 1.7 billion “unbanked,” we rarely hear about the nearly 1 billion people who do have a bank account and a smartphone but have no credit card nor cross-border-enabled debit, writes Eric Rosenthal, managing director of the Americas at Rapyd.