Payments

Zepz Group, the U.K. financial technology startup and parent of the payments company WorldRemit, has named Mark Lenhard as its new chief executive, replacing Breon Corcoran.

The Federal Reserve will roll out its much-anticipated instant payments system, known as FedNow, in the middle of next year. Yet many questions remain about who it will serve, how it will work and how quickly community banks will buy in to it.

10 things to know in August: Community banks are partnering with smaller core providers for tech overhauls, Bread's outage leads to a consumer uproar and more.

This week in global news, Afterpay makes way for Block's Cash App, Singapore plots a crypto crackdown, U.K. calls for fintech deregulation, and more.

Small business' concerns over cash flow and billing cycles are pushing bank competitors like Resolve and Ramp to offer short-term products that bear a resemblance to installment lending.

Three New York City pensions filed shareholder proposals with Mastercard and American Express urging the credit card companies to improve tracking of gun sales.

The hotel franchise can now integrate directly with U.S. employers for invoicing and payment, allowing it to bundle multiple stays and reduce overall costs of managing card acceptance.

A group of 18 U.S. representatives is demanding Credova Financial answer questions about its no-interest financing options for the purchase of guns and ammunition.

Companies like VizyPay, Stax and Carbon Zero Financial seek fresh ideas from people who built their careers in retail, food service and other verticals.

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard said Monday that the central bank's real-time payments network will go live between May and July of 2023 and financial institutions should prepare themselves right away.

Drake Bank in Minnesota is working with the fintech B Generous to test whether installment loans can help bring in larger donations to nonprofits.

More than 30,000 of the bank's customers have already updated their credit cards to show their chosen name instead of their legal name, and the bank expects a similar response from debit card users.

The technology firm is pitching itself as a partner for the development of central bank digital currencies, hoping to gain its clients a role in newer payment systems.

The late-payment rate for the company's buy now/pay later loans rose above 2% for the first time this year in July and August, and CEO Max Levchin says a downturn is "more than likely."

Affirm must demonstrate it can maintain healthy loan growth to regain investor confidence when reporting earnings results Thursday, while Klarna unveils results next week.

Wealthier Americans cut their credit card spending for a third straight month in July as inflation and market volatility weighed on sentiment, according to a study by Bank of America Institute. 

Firms like Amazon Go and Zippin are focusing more on data their systems collect that isn't captured by traditional point-of-sale systems. This information can play a key role in loyalty programs or back-office tasks such as tracking inventory.

This week in global news, Australia maps out its crypto market, the U.K. ponders new crypto legislation, Microsoft plans a metaverse accelerator in Dubai, and more.

The human resources consultancy Thrive and the money management firm Unifimoney say the appeal of digital assets is expanding for payments and payroll, despite the volatility that eliminated much of the currencies' valuation this year.

GiveCard is working with the digital card-issuance platform Highnote to improve the ways organizations can deliver and track donations to recipients such as homeless teens and women in crisis.