Payment processing

While not as large as the U.S. both in number of people and number of credit card owners, the U.K. remains a very lucrative market for issuing banks and card networks, as well as a host of alternative financial service providers catering to younger, underserved consumers.

The fintech Sezzle has finally received its point-of-sale lending license in California after agreeing to refund consumers in the state and pay a penalty for previously making illegal loans there, the California Department of Business Oversight said Thursday.

The fintech Sezzle received its license after agreeing to refund customers and pay a fine for previously making loans that state regulators had deemed illegal.

Small and midsize businesses often struggle to manage their cash, requiring new means to move funds, said Finsync's Eddie Davis.

Having grown up with smartphones in hand, these digital natives crave high speed and instant results, says Wirecard's Susanne Steidl.

Fearful of being the last one standing, banks and credit unions of all sizes will become more aggressive about real-time payments — or risk getting left in the past.

The National Retail Federation's annual conference, taking place this week in New York, is home to many innovations that could change the way merchants accept payments.

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.