Payment processing

Checkout.com has used alternative fees and a high-touch approach to build a market for its online payments toolkit in Europe. Now it's come to the U.S., where the likes of Stripe and Braintree already own a sizable chunk of the market.

So far, U.K. fintechs' options range from relocating to other countries to finding ways to offset negative effects by attempting to “Brexit-proof” their businesses. The latter option can still be a substantial undertaking.

In yet another twist on the idea of a cryptocurrency debit card, MoxyOne has developed its own network as a way to address the setbacks some have faced in relying on Visa and Mastercard.

French banking giant Crédit Agricole’s payments unit has signed a deal with Wirecard to develop an integrated payment acceptance and acquiring platform serving large merchants.

This year could be a pivot point for blockchain to move past proofs of concept to adoption, propelled by strong investor interest. But many still see the tech as being three to four years away from going mainstream.

Employees still fall for phishing attacks, but there is technology that can remove the offending code before employees even view emails, writes Aviv Grafi, CEO of Votiro.

Europe's banks stand to benefit a lot from the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme — but "instant" is a high bar that many banks may not be able to reach.

The central bank is taking a lead role in trying to combat the longstanding problem. A broad study by the Fed aims to measure the extent of payments fraud and to foster more collaboration in thwarting it.

First International Bank plans to rename the company Kotapay, while expanding services that include handling direct deposit and credit card processing for financial firms.

KFC is finally converting its point of sale terminals to accept EMV chip cards, opting for a semi-integrated system to accept all payment types.

The timing is right, both for the technology and for Amazon, which has already demonstrated excellence on required customer journey points like a widely adopted Amazon app, writes Chris Ventry, a director for BRG Corporate Finance.

Until the technologies provide significant savings, cryptotokens threaten financial stability, and the risks of open access to central bank balance sheets are worked out, retail CBDCs are a long way off, writes Collin Canright, a fintech consultant.

The technology behind how payments are being delivered is advancing quickly. Unfortunately, standards and systems aren’t evolving fast enough to keep up, writes Greg Cohen, president of Paya.

The announcement comes after a Federal Reserve Board task force issued a report in September that said it would further examine options for modernizing the U.S. payments system.

These apps may not seem like much of a threat as long as they stay in their lane — but increasingly, ride-sharing companies are pushing the limits of how their apps can be used for payments.

POS payment encryption products are widely available and have been for many years, from technologies designed to secure card data from the point it is entered into the payment terminal, writes Ruston Miles, founder and chief strategy officer of Bluefin Payment Systems.

Domestic debit networks' dual-message transaction options have the ability to disrupt the customer experience, add complexity to back offices operations, and impact issuers’ contractual obligations to their global networks, writes Patrick Goodwin, president of SRM.

There are still millions of merchants in the U.S. clinging to relic point of sale methods — and they are not easily swayed by fancy new touchscreens and mobile wallets. This means companies such as Verifone must go to greater lengths, just to meet them halfway.

Denizen is designed for expats and migrants to receive money and make payments without international transfer fees or currency exchanges.

By aligning, the two companies hope to offer efficiencies in a fiercely competitive business payments market.