Payments

U.S. consumers have been more punctual than ever before in paying back debts as the economy rebounds from the pandemic. 

The $317 million deal will provide the London company with a large base of American clients and help it compete with technology firms like Square, PayPal and Stripe.

Chase Payment Solutions combines Chase Merchant Services with WePay, a fintech the bank bought in 2017, to provide more tailored offerings — such as card acceptance without a merchant account — to entrepreneurs.

The lender is building on a 20-year-old partnership with Fiserv to provide options such as revolving credit, with plans to add buy now/pay later.

Spending on cards continued to increase during the third quarter, while loan balances rose slightly and payment rates began to return to more normal levels. A top company executive expressed confidence that loan growth will pick up but said, “It’s going to take time.”

Banks working with Swift, The Clearing House and EBA Clearing have completed a successful pilot transaction from the U.S. to Europe and are ready to bring the system to other international corridors.

The payments firm dropped support for Bitcoin payments in 2018, but company executives say the increasing popularity of digital currency makes it a good time to reenter the market.

By partnering with the London-based fintech, Andrews Federal Credit Union will enable members to send transfers to 80 countries.

The bank-supported blockchain organization plans to use the acquired assets to speed testing for digital currencies.

Nonfungible tokens, which provide proof of ownership in the digital world, are booming. Payment companies are betting they will require payment rails to fund high-value purchases and attract new customers for loyalty marketing.

Bank of America is giving businesses new ways to transfer money to their customers with the rollout of a system called Recipient Select.

Many of the application programming interfaces that help banks and fintechs share data predate the law that established open banking on the Continent.

The feature, which was years in the making, allows Amex cardholders to link their accounts to PayPal without leaving the issuer's app.

Card issuers are lobbying Visa behind the scenes to reduce Apple's share of revenue from recurring transactions made on its devices. But the iPhone maker has a track record of warding off threats to its income.

The partnership with Stellar Development Foundation will integrate MoneyGram’s network with the Stellar blockchain to facilitate payments using Circle Internet Financial’s USD Coin. 

As head of global liquidity and cash management, Reyes oversees an operation that has 9,000 employees serving 40,000 large corporate and midmarket companies and 1.5 million business banking clients.

Clark heads global transaction banking at MUFG Americas Holdings and is Bay Area president of MUFG Union Bank.

Executives from banks, credit unions, card issuers and investment firms at American Banker's Card Forum discussed ways the public's embrace of digital transactions and credit alternatives like buy now/pay later is shaping everything from products to business strategies.

Venture capital firms are pouring money into startups whose data-crunching technology — including machine-learning systems that predict funds availability — speed payments and inform credit decisions in e-commerce.

By limiting the credit offered to new borrowers during the pandemic, banks created an opening for installment lenders like Affirm, Afterpay and Klarna.