Payments

State Farm struggled to make its bet on banking pay off and decided like other insurers to exit the business. U.S. Bancorp swooped in to add deposits and credit card accounts at little cost or risk.

A handful of banks keep trying to make the customer-Alexa connection happen; banks are more worried about payments firms than other types of fintechs; how financial institutions are coping with COVID-19; and more from this week’s most-read stories.

Wells Fargo hopes to anchor its debit card at the top of customers’ digital wallets with a promotion offering users a $5 credit.

The Reserve Bank of India has temporarily halted operations at the struggling Yes Bank, leaving fintechs without a place to process payments.

Companies that give employees early access to earned pay don't want to be lumped in with payday lenders, so they are putting a new spin on their pitch: It's a tool to lure and retain valuable workers.

Even though health care payment providers have more digital payment options than ever, there still is a tough hurdle to overcome: Patients don't always trust the medical provider or insurance company to provide accurate bills.

As part of its financial inclusion campaign, Mastercard has partnered with Moneytrans to launch remittance-linked checking for migrant workers with a goal of obtaining 1 million users by 2025.

Afterpay, whose online installment loans are seeing strong growth in the U.S. apparel sector, has partnered with Oakland, Calif.-based processor Marqeta to develop additional payment products and services.

Advance wage access company Branch has partnered with Cardtronics’ Allpoint ATM network to provide surcharge-free cash access at all Allpoint ATMs across the U.S. to its customers.

The credit card issuer is seeking to rebound following a tumultuous year in which top executives departed and key retail partners declared bankruptcy.

The global efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak are leading to drastic actions that test the limits of what consumers will accept when governments and other entities use their payment data.

The maturity of "super apps" in China shows how to reach a digital generation, says EBANX's Henrik Nilsmo.

Mastercard's U.K. Pay by Bank service has been slow to get off the ground since its 2016 launch. But Mastercard predicts Pay by Bank will see significant adoption in 2020 due to the partnerships it has established with banks and processors, and the popularity of mobile banking among Britons.

Duplicates can take many different forms and can be difficult to find in a manual review process, says AppZen's Josephine McCann.

Operational efficiency has long been the key to selling AP automation, but a growing payment fraud problem and new risk exposures are giving businesses new reasons to digitize payments.

Offering the preferred payment method is essential to converting customers in LATAM. But the diversity of each country’s market makes this easier said than done, says PPRO's Steve Villegas.

Visa Inc. is working with three banks in Sudan to introduce its payment products, the latest Western brand seeking to enter the North African country after the lifting of U.S. sanctions and the overthrow of its long-time dictator.

As India’s first billion-dollar share sale in more than two years and the only credit card firm in the nation to go public, SBI Cards and Payment Services Ltd.’s float may exceed the $1.4 billion target. The question is by how much in the face of the coronavirus outbreak.

The company said that cardholders’ spending overseas has slowed sharply, especially for travel-related purchases, and that it won’t give a forecast for future quarters until next month.

Something as simple as the sale of cheese can show how fear instantly affects the economy, disrupting trade and the transaction fees that processors rely on.