Payment processing

While reports of toilet paper and hand-sanitizer shortages may be common stories on the nightly news, one consumer goods category is flying off the shelves at an even faster pace, one never seen before – guns and ammunition, increasing payments volume for gun shops, a merchant category financial service providers traditionally avoid.

The “hold” period has shrunk considerably, from 10 business days to typically now three, one or zero, making it harder to spot suspicious activity, says FICO's Liz Lasher.

Curve has launched a new metal card without personal account numbers, which it hopes will better manage the balance between fraud risk and ease of use.

The coronavirus pandemic has halted nearly all spending on travel, leading Airbnb to the private equity market to shore up operations and mitigate a slump in rental revenue.

After considering requests from competition agencies in six nations, the European Commission says Mastercard's acquisition of a majority of Denmark payments provider Nets last summer may violate antitrust rules.

The coronavirus pandemic is likely to force a great leap forward in the fight to crush paper checks, which still account for about half of B2B payments, by moving more invoice payments online.

The Fed plans to make its National Settlement System (NSS) more available. This will help Nacha broaden its settlement capabilities to new regions, writes Icon Solutions' Gene Neyer.

The most effective way to avoid cloud payment breaches is by dramatically reducing access, says CloudKnox Security's Balaji Parimi.

It’s a time of challenges, but fraud teams who adapt well to them will strengthen their systems, and their understanding of their customers and their business, says Identiq's Urid Arad.

Admitting it "may be professional suicide" to take the reins in the midst of a global health crisis, Brady Harris says his role atop Dwolla's management chain will be "a real test of my leadership abilities."

ISO 20022 allows banks to generate greater amounts of standardized data to provide targeted insight, says Icon Solutions' Lauren Jones.

Payments infrastructure integrations create the backbone for front-of-house retail, back-of-house inventory, supply chain, and warehousing, says Global Payments' Frank T. Young.

Interchange fees are a major part of the costs merchants pay to accept payment cards. While merchants seek relief from fees during a time in which their businesses face serious damage from stay-at-home edicts because of coronavirus, the credit card companies and banks quickly began to dig in their heels.

With coronavirus driving more merchants to promote electronic payments over cash — and contactless payments over cards — many are still asking their customers to share a potentially virus-laden pen to sign a receipt or screen at the point of sale.

New features and improvements often take a back seat to security, says Entersekt's Claudius van der Meulen.

U.K. supermarkets which have been experimenting with mobile scan-pay-go may see more consumers adopting the technology due to social distancing requirements in stores.

With coronavirus presenting significant challenges for retailers and the technical challenges of imposing interchange fee changes in the networks, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover are holding off on the updates.

Just more than a month since its founder and CEO Ben Milne announced he was stepping down, payments technology provider Dwolla has named industry veteran Brady Harris as its new CEO.

All financial institutions are now in the decision mode of being a "fast follower" and joining the Clearing House scheme, or being a "patient follower" and waiting for the Fed, writes Icon Solutions Gene Neyer.

Address verification, geolocation and 3-D secure can all play a role, according to Chargebacks 911 and Global Risk Technologies' Monica Eaton-Cardone.