Payment processing

When the pandemic shut classrooms across the U.S. this year, the federal government looked for a quick solution to prevent millions of needy students who typically receive meals at school from going hungry.

Alternative payment methods such as bank transfers, e-wallets, cash-based payments and other payment types are currently the vast majority of e-commerce transactions globally, says PPRO's James Booth.

Blockchain's cross-border power eliminates the intermediary and solves the problem of rendering the traditional processing system redundant, and processes the payment on a chain with no middleman intervention, says ForumPay's Joshua Tate.

Integrated payments have rapidly become critical to maintaining, and in some cases improving, operational stability, says Paya's Jeff Hack.

Sellers need to start implementing the right technologies now, in order to support the retail landscape of tomorrow, says Sorted’s David Grimes.

The pandemic has spurred a major push toward speedier digital transactions, making it an expeditious time for the Faster Payments Council to expand the range of input it gets to expand its mission.

While companies may already have technology in place that supports efficient payments and collections in their home region, treasurers and finance managers need to reflect the diverse and evolving payment and collection demands of customers and suppliers in each market, says Standard Chartered's Tarek Elyafi.

Verifone has acquired 2Checkout, the Atlanta-based e-commerce payments processor, as Verifone continues to expand its online resources.

BNY Mellon has launched a system that automates medical and dental insurance claim payments, attaches benefit explanations and enables virtual card support for medical providers.

Walmart is entering the drone delivery wars, its latest move to counter Amazon.com Inc.’s dominance in e-commerce as more Americans choose to shop from home.

For the dozens of technology companies trying to enable shopping without point of sale terminals, making it work in a full-sized store is the path to disruption. But the coronavirus pandemic flipped the script, bringing disruption well before the technology was ready.

Investors have poured a fresh $106 million into Amsterdam payments service provider Mollie, boosting its valuation past $1 billion.

The pandemic-driven move to electronic payments isn't slowing down, and card issuers are finding an eager group of innovators promising a speedy migration to digital card production.

A mix of online, offline and point of sale credit is necessary to manage new retail models, says PPRO's Steve Villegas.

An Egyptian digital payments firm has quadrupled in value during the pandemic, helped by a government push to reduce citizens’ heavy reliance on cash. Investors and analysts are split on whether the stock rally has further legs.

The actual exposure could be more than ten times the initial breach, due to downstream sales of data, says Bitglass' Anurag Kahol.

The travel industry was hit extremely hard by the coronavirus pandemic. WEX, a payments processing and financial technology solutions organization with offerings for corporate travelers, felt the shockwave first hand.

In the short term, there’s no doubt that acquiring is faster than building something yourself. But to maintain quality and value for your merchants, you have to go through the process of deeply understanding the problem to build a solution that truly solves it, says Adyen's Ingo Uytdehaage.

With the increase in bank transfers and e-wallets, consumers' payment preferences are heading in this direction, particularly during economic crises, says PPRO's James Booth.

The card networks, along with PayPal and Citi, are responding to competition from the likes of Affirm, Afterpay and other "buy now, pay later" lenders. Should traditional credit card lenders be worried?