Payments

Different digital wallets are designed for different purposes and merchants should do their research and respond accordingly, writes Ralph Dangelmaier, CEO of BlueSnap.

A business plan for bitcoin with consumer need behind it has yet to be proven, said Hikmet Ersek, CEO of Western Union.

Wirecard has created a blockchain-based B2B application to streamline payments for merchants buying raw materials like coffee, crude oil and steel.

The advancement of digital wallet technology in the past five years may be having a numbing effect on e-commerce merchants, who favor familiar brands over big-name wallet apps.

Security Group was fined $5 million for abusive collection tactics; the Dutch payments company is now valued at nearly $16 billion.

The simplified pricing of fintechs like Square and Stripe has finally caught up with banks' more complex fees, prompting Wells Fargo to restructure its billing for small businesses. Other banks will also face consequences—particularly community banks that depend on local merchants.

Brick-and-mortar stores are rapidly adding self-checkout options usually linked to proprietary mobile apps, giving merchants more control over how payment options are presented.

Adyen NV, a Dutch payments processor whose clients include Netflix Inc. and Spotify Technology SA, more than doubled in its trading debut in Amsterdam.

The world’s most profitable car manufacturer is investing $1 billion in Singapore’s Grab Holdings Inc., valuing Southeast Asia’s largest car-hailing service at just over $10 billion.

MyBucks plans to give away entry-level smartphones, loaded with the company's financial technology, to encourage mobile payments, mobile banking and broader access to digital services in Africa, where financial innovation often moves quickly.

HSBC worked with Maritz marketing to tap AI to predict which categories of rewards—travel, merchandise, gift cards or dining—consumers were most likely to use, factoring in their seasonal tendencies and past behavior.

The mobile app's popularity was joined at the hip with Starbucks gift cards and loyalty points, a formula that has traditionally been known to work well at other retailers through plastic cards.

Merchants are interested in new payments technology, but there's still an understanding gap that keeps cash a viable option.

Users wishing to move holdings from, say, the Bitcoin to the Ethereum blockchain usually go to an exchange, and convert their Bitcoin into Ether. Along the way, they often pay sizable fees. Once interoperability becomes possible, some of these fees should disappear or decline

Subscribing to simplification at the expense of nuance is hugely counter-productive, and will alienate both existing and potential customers, writes Elina Mattila, executive director at Mobey Forum.

The bank's $17 billion investment in growth businesses is not seen as a game changer; Synchrony working with retail partners to make credit decisions on the fly.

Royal Bank of Canada is one of three Canadian banks with a presence in the Caribbean, and is deploying contactless card readers throughout the region to ride a wave of digital payment adoption.

Cross-border payments firm Payoneer is seeing growth in Asia from local marketplaces, digital platforms, and merchants selling internationally. It is also benefiting from a rise in payments from India to foreign marketplaces and contractors.

Merchants that want to use technology to boost sales can establish in-house systems labs to test new payment technology and apps, or find an external lab to do so.

New Jersey’s commuter rail and bus system is joining the movement to add contactless payment options for commuters, which observers say could spark broader adoption of mobile payments across the U.S.