Payments

More U.S. consumers are defaulting on their credit cards, but banks may be holding onto the riskiest loans instead of passing them off to investors, according to a report from Barclays.

A former call center worker says he lost his job last year after reporting that employees were given incentives to market credit cards to ineligible borrowers.

Global cross-border payments network Thunes has completed a $10 million financing round led through global venture firm GGV Capital to boost its financial services efforts in emerging markets.

Bank of America Merchant Services is working with subscription management platform Recurly to help merchants generate revenue and drive subscriber engagement and customer loyalty.

Mastercard hopes to tap into existing partnerships and clients from multiple business lines to combine services in a single menu for small to mid-sized businesses, a market where fintechs have made great strides over the past few years, enough to draw extra attention from established companies.

There are emerging payment innovations and strategies, such as card controls and online payment technology and analysis, that can help banks and other financial institutions connect with small businesses, writes Erik De Kroon, CEO and co-founder of Yordex.

The bank is hoping the venture will encourage more companies to use Quorum, the Ethereum-based blockchain it built five years ago.

Facebook’s pursuit of a crypto-based payment system would seem to be filled with potholes and red flags. The social network’s stealth project isn’t much of a secret, and another Facebook virtual currency has already failed years earlier. But Facebook also has a lot in its corner — enough to threaten the e-commerce and payment processing establishment, should its crypto project take off.

Mastercard has agreed to acquire digital bill payment platform Transactis, a deal the card network expects to close during the second quarter of 2019.

Transaction fraud, attacks, compliance and political uncertainty are a toxic mix, argues Ian Stone, CEO of Veualta.

Digital coin could be used for purchases across the internet; Berkshire vice chair says he would have let Sloan stay on at Wells.

Speculation has been in the air about whether TSYS—one of the last large legacy processors—may be next in a big M&A deal after the pairings of FIS-Worldpay and Fiserv-First Data were announced this year.

Among his many responsibilities in the newly created role, Brian Doubles will be in charge of expanding Synchrony's direct-to-consumer banking business.

British bank NatWest will launch a merchant acquiring service to attract small and midsize businesses in the U.K. and other countries.

Apple is addressing consumer demands and pain points head-on, with the overall goal of making consumers’ lives easier, argues Jeff Bender, vice president of digital solutions for Diebold Nixdorf.

Transferrable dynamic authentication is something almost everyone wants but still seems just out of reach. Experian says there are a couple of places where that problem can be solved, adding it’s time to realize that even digital-age ID rules no longer work.

Visa and Mastercard are driving digital transactions by financially empowering women in emerging markets who are unbanked but manage their families’ spending. The card networks are particularly targeting women in gig economy jobs and women-owned businesses.

By using one anonymous, streamlined platform, it is easy to conduct B2B commerce anywhere while keeping transactions digital, allowing both parties to connect without leading to fragmentation within the market, writes Derek Wall, founder, CEO and CTO of HUBX.

Here are seven startups that received multimillion-dollar venture capital investments in recent weeks to accelerate the development of banking products and services.

In the wake of Zelle, Venmo and Apple Cash getting more active users and potential revenue, Square is relying on its Square Cash App and Cash Card as key drivers for its own growth.