Payments

Venmo has more than 40 million active users, PayPal has revealed for the first time. This finally gives the market a sense of how popular Venmo is, and sheds a little light on how it compares to the bank-run Zelle service.

Visa Inc. braved a stronger U.S. dollar and a decline in consumer confidence even as its customers’ spending overseas continued to slow during the first three months of the year.

Javier Pérez-Tasso has been named the new CEO of payments messaging standards provider Swift, replacing Gottfried Leibbrandt, who steps down from the post at the end of June.

Marqeta has launched a digital banking solution for European fintechs and signed three customers to use it: Aplazame, Morning and Yapeal.

Until significant steps are taken toward creating a seamless and intuitive experience, blockchain will fall short of its goals, as it is unable to communicate its value.

Silicon Valley, New York, London and several of China’s largest cities are the world’s leading fintech hubs, but many other locales are gunning for their crown.

So far, 2019 has been characterized by a series of eye-catching strategic deals within the global payments ecosystem, with new players positioning themselves to rival Visa and Mastercard. The card networks giants have responded by pursuing a strategy to become less reliant on transactional fees.

Mastercard is expanding its Girls4Tech education outreach program with new partnerships, and tightening the focus on subjects broadly in demand in the payments industry.

As part of its formal spinoff from consumer lender Affirm, B2B e-commerce platform Resolve is launching automated payments that offer extended net terms for product buyers.

There are many motivations for implementing faster payments, such as paying gig economy workers after each job, sending funds overseas, or improving insurance payouts. In all of these examples, the demand comes from the payments recipient.

Change in strategy to lure new customers; new FHFA director wants to make Fannie, Freddie “stronger, healthier."

As banks continue to invest heavily in developing mobile and web-based services for personal and business accounts, investments, money transfers, micro loans and peer-to-peer payments to make the customer experience as seamless as possible, they cannot afford to let compliance efforts lag, writes Sam Abadir, vice president of industry solutions for Lockpath.

The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank plans to launch a pilot in 2020 of a blockchain-based digital version of the Eastern Caribbean dollar. This marks the first time that a central bank will have issued digital legal tender using the blockchain.

As threats from nimble fintechs and global e-commerce companies abound, Visa’s turning to open development tools to place itself in the middle of the innovation, rather than making a solitary counterplay itself.

In the month since FIS announced its $43 billion Worldpay deal, the company has disclosed little about its timeline for integrating the two large organizations.

JCPenney ended support for Apple Pay in its stores and also removed the mobile payment option from its app, a surprising reversal for a brand that offered Apple Pay in 2015, within a year of its rollout. There are multiple factors in play here.

Banks say easing rules on people with some criminal records will diversify the applicant pool; deal with Synchrony may be near.

The SEC and other regulators are taking a closer look at ICOs and mergers involving cryptocurrencies and distributed ledgers, which requires careful diligence for payment companies and dealmakers, according to Will Turner, a partner in the blockchain and cryptocurrency practice at Steptoe & Johnson.

Measures of loan performance were generally better than expected at Ally, American Express, Synchrony and Sallie Mae. Their 1Q reports suggest that consumers remain able to meet their obligations despite a long run-up in debt.

T-Mobile, which announced Thursday that its four-month testing phase for the T-Mobile Money app is complete and that the banking/payments service is available nationwide, said the next step is to establish itself as a mainstream financial services company.