Payments

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

To fuel growth, Apple's mobile wallet needs to go beyond its core use cases of NFC and in-app payments. Apple Pay's latest project leans more heavily on NFC to do work typically handled by apps.