Payments

The firm's web services unit is applying hosted technology to parts of transactions that take place behind the scenes in an attempt to reach smaller merchant acquirers.

Nineteen Democratic lawmakers proposed a ban on buy now/pay later loans to finance semiautomatic weapons that would include levying hefty fines on companies that enable the transactions and dealers that accept them.

The Bank of Lithuania said it will start bankruptcy proceedings against Payrnet and intends to ask authorities to investigate possible criminal offenses. 

In its ongoing quest to diversify beyond bank account data-aggregation, Plaid aims to help fintechs and banks to block fraud by sharing data about stolen consumer identities via a fee-based consortium called Beacon.

The bank and MoCaFi are offering digital disbursements and cards as a cheaper and more accessible alternative for underbanked consumers.

This week in global news, Mastercard teams with SimpliFi in the Middle East, Venezuela and Russia collaborate on payments, Alipay backs Asian Games and more. 

California regulators are suggesting that programs that allow workers fee-free access to their earnings between pay periods should be treated as loan products. That's wrong and short-sighted.

NomuPay has acquired parts of the disgraced processor that could help it overcome the barriers of entry to the lucrative market.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to issue a larger participant rule that would allow the agency to examine consumer payment markets. The rule will allow the CFPB to examine and supervise Big Tech companies such as Apple, Alphabet's Google, PayPal and Square.

The Bank of England is a step closer to launching its own digital currency after a yearlong project concluded the technology could support a "diverse range" of new ways to use money.