Payments

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.

While open banking is a fascinating movement poised to benefit consumers and spark significant innovation in financial services, the world must weigh convenience vs. risk and approach the inherent privacy and security concerns with caution, says Imperva's Terry Ray.

Western Union Co. is seeking to acquire rival money transfer company MoneyGram International Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter.

By targeting the API rather than scripting a form fill, bad actors are leveraging the same efficiency and flexibility that APIs provide developers, says Cequence Security's Matt Keil.

The corporate credit union has begun transitioning nearly 600 clients to the new platform.

The security method offers real-time authentication checks to combat phony chargebacks, says PAAY CEO Yitz Mendlowitz.

The coronavirus pandemic was an unexpected catalyst for contactless cards, and another no-contact payment method is poised for growth as well: voice payments.

Since March, issuers have tightened their criteria for opening new accounts and closed millions of existing ones in hopes of avoiding waves of defaults.

Merchants should also monitor fraud by channel, to see how much each channel contributes to total fraud losses, Bernardo Lustosa of ClearSales says.

The modern mobile wallet no longer uses a card as a crutch. Instead, it sees it as an additional product that can add revenue from interchange, lending and loyalty.

As Erez Ben-Kiki and his wife tried to move her yoga business online — conducting classes via Zoom — they discovered that the process of monetizing such classes was surprisingly awkward. Ben-Kiki, CEO and co-founder of 2Key Network, spotted a gap in the market.

Minimizing outsourcing is one way to minimize uncertainty, making sure you’re the one in the driver’s seat of your plans.

People who order groceries for delivery may be using digital payments or a plastic card to pay for their food, but the person picking up the groceries may be making a separate payment at the point of pickup — and in the process, influencing the global shift toward contactless payments.

About 78% of Mastercard’s European transactions are now contactless, and the company expects the shift in payment choice will be permanent.

Sony has invested in digital transaction security firm MagicCube, citing it as the Sony Innovation Fund's first investment outside of Japan.

Even digitally savvy organizations face a vexing dilemma when sending emergency funds: The neediest recipients often have little other option than to receive paper checks.