Payments

Visits and conversion rates are important, but it’s also important to monitor what happens between the moment someone enters your website and the moment they decide to make a purchase, says Robin Reodica, product management executive at Bank of America Merchant Services.

Contactless payment transaction volume is soaring in Canada to the point where total credit card transaction volume is edging out debit card transactions for the first time because many consumers are using credit cards to tap and pay.

Susan French, head of product at BBVA Open Platform, discussed the bank's vetting of fintech partners and how it deals with the competitive threat that their products present.

Banks and merchants can already access solutions that can provide a real-time experience and process payments on the best set of rails for any particular use case, says BillGo's Kelly Seidl.

Canada is often at the forefront of payments innovation, with active fintech hubs and a national initiative to restructure the country’s transaction system for e-commerce. Yet outdated attitudes about identity risk linger, showing how hard it will be to achieve global digital ID at scale.

Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency project has lost its first major ally. PayPal — where the head of Facebook's Libra project once served as president — has cut its ties. As a founding member, PayPal was expected to drive the payment-specific part of the cryptocurrency initiative.

PayPal’s cross-border remittance unit Xoom is hoping to build a faster payments market in South Korea by enabling direct delivery into bank accounts, a channel that tends to be more expensive than other options.

German payments processor and technology provider Wirecard is launching new money transfer capabilities for users of the Viber instant messaging application.

Demand for a user-friendly way to shop and pay for tailored products requires action from those that want to stay ahead of the digital curve, says KBMax's Kris Goldhair.

Frustrated after being overlooked by mainstream financial institutions, organizers of the proposed Pagan Federal Credit Union are hoping to be chartered by the end of the year.