Payments

Competition in the earned wage access arena is leading to more innovation — and emphasizing the need for regulation, according to a new report from Harvard University researchers.

More than 1,000 users reported problems making payments on Tuesday before complaint volumes tapered around midday, according to DownDetector, a site that collects user outage reports. The internal network disruption comes on the heels of another Zelle outage JPMorgan Chase took responsibility for seven days ago.

The world's largest payment network is making changes to how it deals with merchants who want to charge customers extra when paying with a credit card.

Lawyers representing the man accused of killing technology executive Bob Lee are attempting to poke holes in the prosecution's case, questioning the motive and the thoroughness of the police investigation in what's likely a long-term strategy to raise enough doubt to exonerate their client at trial.

Flywire, Visa and Mastercard all entered partnerships that anticipate a post-pandemic recovery. But politics are still keeping them from getting deeper into the market.

In July's roundup of American Banker's favorite stories: A Zelle outage at JPMorgan Chase could cause headaches for other banks, talking points for understanding FedNow, the Elkhart, Kansas-based Heartland Tri-State Bank is shuttered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and more.

U.S. financial institutions should look to the U.K. for tips on fighting real-time payments fraud.

Payment companies hope the government-backed rail could spur both domestic and international growth for instant settlement.

Elon Musk's vision of an everything app that includes banking capabilities may not be what Americans are looking for, said Max Levchin, who co-founded PayPal with the world's richest man.

In her day-to-day job directing activities at the card network's Start Path accelerator, Sabrina Tharani helps nurture companies that are developing new payments products and services.

The bank hasn't explained why person-to-person payments, bill processing and account-transfer services went down for parts of two days this week. But observers suspect glitches in its legacy systems could occur at other financial institutions and increasingly affect real-time payment networks.

Despite a sharp drop in spending and rising delinquencies during the second quarter, the issuer's stock rose on news of lower debt, rising deposits and a new private-label partnership with Dell Technologies.

Mastercard has told payment processors and banks to stop allowing marijuana transactions on debit cards, in a blow to the struggling cannabis industry and a boon to transparency in the banking system.

Michael Miebach, the card network's chief executive, discussed his plan for competing against the Federal Reserve's new real-time settlement system.

Elon Musk's original X.com was an internet bank that became part of PayPal. Musk wants to bring X back to its banking roots, but the market may have moved on.

Travelers in China can now add Visa and Mastercard to WeChat Pay and Alipay, providing a boost for the country's tourism industry as it tries to recover from the pandemic. Additionally, British regulators may delay plans to tighten the rules for by now/pay later lenders, partly based on concerns that some of the largest lenders may depart the market.

A rising payments star — and photographer — is helping the card network reach content creators and new entrepreneurs.

Elon Musk's grand vision is to turn Twitter into a one-stop shop for financial services. It's hardly the first time a tech giant has sought to muscle in on Jamie Dimon's turf.

CEO Ryan McInerney touted the growth of Visa Direct and unveiled a fraud-scoring service called RTP Prevent, which is powered by artificial intelligence, while discussing the card network's earnings for its fiscal third quarter.