Payments

Chatting up Square, Afterpay's Mexico vamoose and more in banking news this week.

By opening a recording-artist accelerator featuring virtual worlds and nonfungible tokens, the company plans to reach an industry that appeals to young consumers.

Credit card interest rates are expected to reach a four-decade high this year, a positive for lenders poised to benefit from the increased income while painful for consumers facing escalated borrowing costs.

The rise of legalized online sports betting has pushed the payments industry to create some of its stiffest defenses against scams.

As 2023 begins with an aura of economic uncertainty, businesses will seek a competitive advantage in how they accept and initiate payments, Dwolla COO Dave Glaser contends.

Credit cards offered by banks including Wells Fargo and Synchrony Financial intended to cover expensive health care services may be causing unnecessary financial pain for consumers, said a group of U.S. senators, who cited potentially deceptive promotions.

Swift adds a top exec from Mastercard, Visa expands mobile pay in Oman, Turkey tests a CBDC; and other global financial services news.

The payments firm plans to combine technology from these deals to appeal to the merchants that will need more flexibility and options to fight a potential recession.

The bank-owned payments network The Clearing House said David Watson, Swift's chief product officer, would succeed Jim Aramanta, who is retiring.

Bank robberies are becoming a thing of the past in cashless Denmark as the Nordic country recorded its first year of zero holdups in 2022.