Payments

Alfie’s Beer Bus found a niche as an offbeat character at events in the U.K. — like an ice cream truck, only with alcohol. Then the coronavirus came.

SolarisBank and Visa have provided the technology to enable Vivid Money to launch its mobile banking app in Germany with virtual cards and cash-back rewards.

Apple Inc. is planning a service that will allow customers to buy products including iPads, Macs and AirPods and split up the cost over several months with interest-free payments.

Banks are looking to reduce their consumer credit risk exposure in the face of high unemployment; the drop in branch transactions is causing banks to rethink how many they need.

Paysafe is expanding the reach of its Skrill digital wallet to U.S. consumers who will be able to use it to send funds to 18 countries.

Japanese credit card giant JCB plans to use technology from FIS to enable cross-border QR code payments as digital wallet use rises across Asia.

The race to provide coronavirus relief for small businesses is opening new routes to fund payments, including underused credit lines.

As merchants are challenged to adapt their business just to survive, and consumers push for greater control over where and how they spend, the payments industry is in a position to align the various needs, says Splitit's Brad Paterson.

Grab Holdings Inc., Southeast Asia’s ride-hailing giant, is expanding delivery services from convenience stores and supermarkets across 50 cities in the region.

The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way many industries conduct business — and that's especially true of the legal cannabis industry, which was already struggling in the U.S. to find the best way to handle noncash payments.

Walt Disney Co. has at least temporarily cut several reservation and incentive features tied to its closed loop payment system, revealing the complexities of mixing health guidance with tourism.

Landesbank Berlin, a major issuer of co-branded cards in Germany, has launched a contactless card with German Automobile Club ADAC as its first project with European payments services provider SIA.

Innovating is tough even in ordinary times, but during the coronavirus pandemic many payments startups had to dig into deeper reserves of creativity and resilience to meet expectations.

The challenges may seem daunting, financial institutions and fintechs must focus on identifying meaningful opportunities based on the financial priorities of consumers and businesses to help them weather these difficult times.

Many of the payment innovations of the past decade got an early start in Canada, building a base of users and habits the nation hopes will make the pivot to post-coronavirus commerce easier than other markets.

As small businesses' cash flow tightens during the pandemic, Alibaba Group is enabling SMBs to postpone payments for 60 days on cross-border e-commerce purchases.

American Express has added 26 Caribbean nations to the list of countries where it’s raised the ceiling on contactless transactions that may be conducted without PINs, to reduce consumers’ exposure to touching PIN pads.

The coronavirus pandemic has made paper money literally a dirty word, causing a rush to digital payments that may be too fast for Western Union and MoneyGram to keep up with as separate companies.

The global coronavirus outbreak has up-ended daily life for many consumers, including where they shop and how they pay for things. The U.K. is no exception, as issues of health and hygiene have now been introduced as important factors when it comes to both planned and impulse shopping.

New technologies can provide recommendations and proactively engage with customers and members to help them pay their bills or pay friends and proactively manage their financial well-being, says Payrailz's Mickey Goldwasser.