Payments

When Fiserv purchased First Data in 2019, it was part of an industrywide push to combine bank and merchant technology under one roof. A year later, a key piece of First Data’s technology — and its top executive — have become Fiserv’s path through the coronavirus crisis.

Trends in China such as mobile payments, omnichannel shopping and social commerce show us what a post-coronavirus world could look like for brands and retailers in the U.S., says Azoya International's Franklin Chu.

A mix of consumer debt and economic anxiety is shining a light on firms that offer alternatives to revolving credit. This, in turn, creates a chance to further tie financing directly to checkout.

JetBlue Airways Corp. sold loyalty points to Barclays Plc for $150 million, making the carrier among the first in the U.S. to use the method to raise cash as the coronavirus pandemic all but extinguishes demand for travel.

One of the selling points behind multi-account payment cards is the ability to shift spending on the fly or shortly after shopping, such as to fund a recent purchase with loyalty points. During the pandemic, this feature may become a key financial management tool.

Consumers like having different payment options, and not just a few, says RS2 North America's Daniela Mielke.

Payments technology provider linked2pay is offering businesses accepting B2B payments a way to avoid late payments from customers by adding a new option to the digital credit application for purchases.

When the coronavirus pandemic began, Square pushed hard to get a bigger share of merchants' online sales and consumers' stimulus spending — and even received its long-desired bank license — but found that this wasn't enough to offset the effects of the crisis.

Stuart Levey, HSBC’s chief counsel and a former U.S. Treasury undersecretary, will head the cryptocurrency project; lender groups say the demands of those small business loans are not so easy to meet.

The businesses that are open now are providing clues for payment hardware makers on how the retail landscape will look once the pandemic clears.