Payment processing

HSBC has launched its Treasury APIs to offer treasurers easier access to payment and account services, as well as to initiate the transfer of funds for B2B payments.

Before Visa agreed to acquire data company Plaid for $5.3 billion, Mastercard had been pulling ahead in the race among the card brands to break beyond reliance on basic processing fees.

Data privacy regulations may be improving, and tech companies may now be forced to be more transparent about their practices, but the fact remains that vast quantities of personally identifying information are already out in the wild, says TRUSTID's Patrick Cox.

By linking your POS to inventory management software, you can easily keep an eye on the amount of product you have and note when it’s time to restock or purchase from your distributors, says Bank of America Merchant Services' Sydney Ivey.

Fintech bank and payment services provider LHV is now providing real-time payments in the U.K. through the country's Faster Payments scheme, allowing it to handle U.K. currency in addition to euro payments in the Single Euro Payment Area through SEPA Instant.

U.K. credit card lender NewDay, which issues co-branded cards for Amazon, Laura Ashley and Topshop, is expanding its technology offerings by acquiring installment lending platform Deko.

Oklahoma lawmakers' decision last month to drop the state's surcharging ban was yet another signal that U.S. merchants have the final say in whether to apply extra charges to credit card transactions to offset interchange fees.

From Malta to Belgium, the past three years have served as something of a shopping market between payments-based fintechs seeking alternative jurisdictions through which they could still be licensed within the EU, and investment agencies hoping for a piece of their business.

Fraudsters can attack multiple individuals with the same scam, knowing that the details won’t be shared. Sharing the details of a scam takes that advantage away, says The ai Corporation's James Crawshaw.

China’s slow courting of U.S. payment companies made a tiny step forward this week, shortly after a similar gesture from the U.S. government that teases progress in the broader trade dispute.

So far this year, Lloyds and Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks have had payment failures in the U.K. And in the U.S., a software glitch at parking technology vendor Parkeon halted digital payments at meters in New York and other cities.

Businesses have to ensure they're not losing money on the currency exchange, and volatility in the local market could upset their earnings or pricing structures in those areas, says Rapyd's Joel Yarbrough.

The thinking has been that additional POS complexity is the only way to give customers what they want and streamline business operations. Yet a typical merchant uses less than 20% of the capability of their POS solution—and not often very well, says Revel Systems' Chris Lybeer.

Payment fintech Tribe Payments says it has implemented its new software platform at Telleroo to provide the company direct access to payment rails and other banking services for its accounting and bookkeeper clients.

Most banks already have the means to communicate directly with customers, in the form of a mobile banking app or email. It’s just a matter of putting those channels to good use. Targeted discounts and perks reduce shopping costs, and therefore customers’ stress, says Flybits' Justine Melman.

Akin to the democratization of computing power through personal computers, the growing use of AI will continue to fuel new products and services in payments and have a significant impact on society. But AI will also introduce tremendous challenges due to its potential use by threat actors, says Visa's Paul Fabara.

The economic outlook for the next year has been a moving target, but business payment companies fear that certain organizations are losing patience with the speed of transactions.

In seeking a more secure way for consumers to use payment cards when shopping online, Deutsche Bank, Mastercard and Idemia say they have launched the first motion code card in Spain.

In what’s been named the “fourth Industrial Revolution,” the opportunity for fintech to continue to disrupt the payments landscape and deliver solutions that move money quickly and securely will only continue to grow, says AvidXchange's Dan Drees.

One of the biggest untapped areas of payment innovation is in consumer bill payment, which makes up 30% of U.S. consumer spending, with banks currently playing a shrinking role in the $4 trillion segment.