Payments

United Arab Emirates plans to launch a central bank digital currency this year; Adyen adds travel payment cards; and more.

Travel disruptions make it crucial for hospitality providers to handle bookings, cancellations and postponements — and the underlying payments and refunds — with ease. Software vendors are tailoring their products to address the needs of this and other niches.

With Apple pushing into the lending business with a buy now/pay later service, the company is laying out rules for how it will approve transactions. One key factor: whether you've been a good customer in the past.

Providers such as Klarna, Clearpay and PayPal will be required to give consumers key information about their loans and issue credit that is affordable, while users will have the right to take complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Dozens of vendors are joining real-time settlement networks from the Federal Reserve and The Clearing House. These partnerships are the first step toward making both systems interoperable.

The payments company said the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has closed a probe it began in 2020 after a consumer advocacy group accused PayPal of offering students at for-profit universities high-cost financing for unaccredited courses.

As a stand-alone company, Worldpay will have more leeway to pursue mergers and acquisitions, FIS CEO Stephanie Ferris says.

Super Bowl spending spikes, Openpay closes, Mastercard takes aim at gamers, and more in banking news this week.

PayPal is pausing work on the project as regulators increase scrutiny of cryptocurrencies and a key partner faces a probe by the New York State Department of Financial Services.

Coinbase shares fell the most in more than six months after rival Kraken was forced to stop providing an investment service also offered by the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange.