Payments

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.

The Clearing House announced moves to attract community banks and credit unions to its real-time payments system. Smaller depositories have generally been reluctant to sign up with what is seen as a large-bank effort.

Mobile technology provider Mahindra Comviva developed a software integration for issuing banks and third-party digital wallet providers to add contactless payment capabilities to their mobile products in India.

The U.K. government is consulting with train operators on smart pay-as-you-go ticketing. The goal is to enable consumers to travel across the U.K.’s entire railway network by tapping in and out with contactless cards or smartphones instead of paper tickets.

Once Apple looked at the state of its existing ecosystem, it identified a space it could uniquely deliver on, and activated the partners needed to make it come to fruition — a perfect example of the concept of ecosystem enablement, argues Frank Kenney, director of market strategy for Cleo.

StreetShares will add to its line of financing products with a credit card specifically for small-business owners with a military background.

The firm wants to expand its acceptance in the United States only to accommodate Chinese tourists, a company official said Thursday. But the CEO of a U.S.-based payments firm expressed skepticism.

Seeking a way to help its employed shoppers manage their money, the Instacart grocery payments and delivery service is partnering with e-commerce payments provider Stripe to offer an Instant Cashout option.

As more national banks leave smaller communities and focus on large customers, fintechs are creating an "Uber effect" with an easier experience. Small businesses are increasingly looking to borrow money and fund their growth initiatives, and need a partner who can deliver, argues William Phelan, president of PayNet.

The U.K. prepaid gift card market is experiencing strong growth among consumers who buy them as gifts and for self-use, as well as among businesses that purchase them for customer loyalty programs and as employee incentives.

They haven't thrown in the towel yet, but comments by top executives at the two big banks suggested that their interest in finding financial services uses for distributed ledgers is wearing very thin.

Visa and Remitly have formed a partnership enabling U.S. consumers to send cross-border remittances in real time via Visa Direct, the card network’s debit push-payments service.

MoneyGram is investing more time and technology in helping law enforcement agencies spot the scammers moving money on its network.

Digital payment innovators have shown an almost limitless propensity to home in on banks’ turf, and Citigroup is ready to strike back.

Mainstream firms are joining the push to let cannabis firms use banks; the companies say they can help banks make lending decisions quicker.

The scope of customer experience spans multiple products and services that comprise the merchant technology and payment service ecosystems, according to Paul Perry, a contributor for the technology company Relay.

As more U.S. e-commerce merchants look to accept cross-border payments, they must contend with payment processes that are less straightforward than they are used to — but which consumers have come to expect.