Payments

As if they needed another reminder that their business models might not have a place in the modern payments landscape, independent sales organizations are left wondering what role — if any — they will have in launching the Apple Card.

Today’s global citizens face risks that extend far beyond crumbling highways. Although reliable physical infrastructure is necessary for economic growth, immature and anemic payment infrastructures may present another serious threat to the global economy, writes Tomas Likar, head of business development and strategy at Hyperwallet.

The Earnin app appears designed to look like other early wage access programs, but critics say it’s actually a payday lender and New York regulators have taken notice.

Amazon’s incursion into brick and mortar has been aggressive, but not without its share of course corrections. The latest is a new round of price cuts at Whole Foods amid whispers of slow Prime traffic at the high-end grocer.

Firm “hopes to crowdsource new uses for” its pricing and analysis system; the system could be put on a device and used anywhere to cut down on fraud.

FIS’s $43 billion agreement to acquire Worldpay and Fiserv’s $22 billion deal to buy First Data are largely closing the gaps between financial technology and merchant acquiring. But these mergers are only the first of many steps.

Western Union has found a way to expand its U.S. footprint without building new storefronts through a strategic relationship it’s established with deep-discounter Dollar General.

Walmart customers will soon be able to shop for groceries online using Google hardware, giving the retailer an established market for voice ordering — that is still a distant second to Amazon's Alexa user base.

Wells Fargo & Co. has committed to converting all of its payment cards to contactless technology, beginning with credit cards and adding contactless debit cards this summer.

Randal Quarles, a senior Fed official and chair of the Financial Stability Board, sparked debate with a speech about the risks and rewards of companies like Amazon, Facebook and Apple entering the financial system.

Business payments software provider Bill.com will offer Mastercard virtual cards as part of its automated accounts payable platform for small and midsize businesses.

Serving the small-business market requires more than just rebranding a plastic card. There are certain functions related to expense tracking, for example, that don't come up in a typical consumer relationship.

On Sep. 30, 2018. Dollars in thousands.

The gig economy presents many challenges in its reliance on a freelance workforce. Among those is the task of managing corporate spending for workers that don't use a corporate card or expense platform.

Jumia Technologies AG said Mastercard Inc. has agreed to invest 50 million euros ($56 million) in a private placement ahead of the Africa-focused online retailer’s planned initial public offering in New York.

The EMVCo standards organization has accredited FIME's transaction security testing labs for the upgraded EMV contactless interface software.

While many Americans and Europeans are comfortable using biometric authentication to access their smartphones and bank accounts, the real leader in biometric adoption for payments is actually the government of India.

Mastercard has spent years attempting to overhaul transit payments to allow riders to pay with a contactless credit or debit card. This time around, it expects Apple Pay to play a significant role.

Some fintechs have figured out how to provide international students and immigrants with credit cards and loans. Machine learning makes the underwriting possible.

Under the hood of U.S. Bank's new mobile app; BofA, Wells Fargo sour on blockchain; are Fannie and Freddie too big?; and more from this week's most-read stories.