Payments

Dark clouds may not yet be on the horizon, but industry executives are sending the message to investors that they know a turn in the credit cycle is coming, and they are planning accordingly.

Two major Canadian banks, Bank of Montreal and Simplii Financial, have become victims of hacks that affected some 50,000 and 40,000 customers respectively. Neither bank decided to pay the ransom by the hackers' May 28 deadline.

Intuit has added new features to QuickBooks Payroll so employers can make payroll at the last minute, delivering same-day paychecks to workers with the option to make direct deposits to contract employees.

Billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Financial is lifting its fundraising target to more than $12 billion by bringing in existing Chinese shareholders in a yuan-denominated financing round, people familiar with the matter said.

Virtual reality is seeing significant leaps in technology, with immediate applications to gaming and entertainment that foreshadow richer applications for VR in commerce.

Unless near zero-friction identity security is embraced, connected devices cannot be used for payments in a substantial way, according to Xavier Larduinat, manager for innovation at Gemalto.

For voice to truly thrive in business and enterprise settings, the technology must handle complicated transactions, such as an order for multiple sets of tables and chairs with customized dimensions, writes Mark Bartlett, chief experience officer at FPX.

Ingenico is negotiating a business combination with BS Payone that would boost its profile in parts of central Europe and allow it to counter multichannel moves by other major payment companies.

Wirecard and Enio, an Austria-based supplier of electric car charging stations throughout Europe, are collaborating to enable contactless payments at thousands of sites.

It's vital to be in touch with consumer shopping and payment tastes for individual retail categories and consumer groups. That may or may not include removing cash and human interaction, according to Andrew Wind, principal product manager at Worldpay.

As consumers spend more time interacting over social media and messaging platforms, those providers are making sure that they can also make payments related to any topic of conversation. But the arrival of Apple Pay Cash is complicating the market.

The service aims to offer consumers in Ghana more digital transfer options while also expanding the company's digital growth.

Citigroup Inc. is considering the idea, as well as other types of rewards for checking and savings accounts, to entice customers to sign up for its fledgling online bank, which it began to roll out nationwide earlier this year.

Facebook Inc. is set to offer its WhatsApp payment services to the whole of India as early as next week in an attempt to win market share, even though its partners aren’t all ready, said people familiar with the matter.

Mobile technology can infer a user’s identity and make device-based decisions on the validity of a transaction, writes Kayne McGladrey, an IEEE member and director of information security services for Integral Partners.

YellowPepper's strategic investment from Visa as part of a $12.5 million Series D funding round gives the company a chance to expand beyond its focus on Latin America and into new markets such as Europe and Asia.

Banks are at the forefront of blockchain innovation, disrupting cross-border payments, trade finance and product development worldwide.

President plans to ease regulatory burden on the largest banks; online merchants say a Visa-Mastercard button blocks cheaper payment methods.

American Express is putting its involvement in the Hyperledger Project to the test, deploying blockchain technology with Boxed to enable the digital warehouse merchant to customize a rewards plan for Amex cardholders.

Avoiding repeating past mistakes will not be enough. Visa, Mastercard, Amex and Discover need to bring some added value that could trump PayPal’s already end-user-friendly solutions, writes Adriana iordan, vice president of product management for 2Checkout.