Payments

A man entered a SunTrust branch in Sebring, Fla., and shot and killed five women, four of whom were bank employees; 24 million mortgage documents exposed in data security lapse; the battle for deposits is like "a steel-cage" match; and more from this week's most-read stories.

Starbucks is being pressured to add an in-app option for deliveries rather than redirect customers to Uber's app.

Few investors will have heard of Earthport Plc. But the company has just become the target in a bidding war between Mastercard Inc. and Visa Inc.

Florida’s Tropicana Field has eliminated cash from all concessions, ticket sales and parking, requiring Tampa Bay’s baseball fans to pay with credit, debit or gift cards at terminals that are also equipped with NFC for mobile and contactless payments.

Small businesses short on cash can use advances from Fundbox to buy products from online suppliers.

Discover leaned heavily on rewards to drive new card acquisitions and sales growth in the fourth quarter, but suffered a double whammy of rising reward costs and higher charge-offs, causing it to miss analyst earnings expectations.

Proposals that would have financial firms monitor or refuse to finance certain firearms purchases are misguided, putting the onus on unelected corporations.

Delinquencies, which are on the rise across financial services, clouded an otherwise solid quarter for Discover Financial Services.

Jason Oxman is leaving his CEO position at the Electronic Transactions Association to become the president and CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council, a position he will assume in late February.

Samsung’s been pushing for government support for its blockchain and cryptocurrency technology for much of the past year, and early Galaxy S10 leaks suggest a built-in crypto wallet will be among the handset's planned features.

There’s no reason for the central bank to prohibit nonbank financial firms from entering the payments system as long as appropriate rules are put in place to protect against risk.

The bank-led P2P network Zelle saw its strongest quarterly growth during the fourth quarter of 2018, as payment volume rose nearly 60 percent to $119 billion for the year. But large banks such as Bank of America are seemingly driving the lion’s share of its volume.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication reports that its Global Payments Innovation system, which it launched two years ago, now handles more than a million payments a day.

Retailers are aggressively competing to bring new delivery technologies to market, ranging from autonomous vehicles to gig economy apps.

In selling its Walmart credit card portfolio to Capital One and extending a partnership with Sam’s Club that appeared to be in peril, Synchrony Financial avoids an expensive legal battle with the world’s largest retailer.

Advent International Capital has bought a majority stake in the Argentine operator of Visa for about $725 million from a group of local banks.

The Federal Reserve has suggested it could join the market for instant interbank payments, but private-sector entrants would be better.

Americans 50 and older make up a sizable portion of the U.S. population — 115 million individuals in 2018. While these consumers may not be the first to use mobile P2P apps, they represent a big payment opportunity because of their economic purchasing power.

A 2017 agreement with Marriott International that kept the hotel chain's card portfolio with American Express and JPMorgan Chase will take a brand marketing turn in February, but leave both issuers as partners.

American Express’ ambitious multi-merchant rewards program, Plenti, failed last year, but it wasn’t a total loss. FIS took several lessons from Plenti that it’s applying to its own evolving payment card rewards program.