Payments

The desperation in Puerto Rico for life's essentials — food, gas, water and electricity — in the wake of Hurricane Maria illustrates the need for payments providers to move as quickly as possible to get the U.S. territory in a position to reinstate some semblance of modern commerce.

Following an antitrust review that lasted almost a year, the approval would appear to cement The Clearing House's status as the front-runner in a race to modernize the U.S. payments system.

The explosion of interest in digital assets this year, and the multiplying of their market value, are making cryptocurrency debit cards newly attractive. Banks could partner with intermediaries or issue the cards directly, but obstacles remain before that day can arrive.

Equifax mismanaged its recovery by asking for personal information to determine if a user was affected and then issuing a predictable PIN code to those who requested a credit lock, moves that diluted confidence in the company, writes Timothy Crosby, senior security consultant for Spohn Security Solutions.

The company would not say where the jobs are based or how many positions are being eliminated. The layoffs come as Capital One's investments in digital technology are yielding efficiency gains.

The company, founded by musician Jack Conte about five years ago, allows fans to give creators a steady paycheck to create new content, and it's a clear hit among certain communities. But by severing the clear link between product and payment, it has also created some unprecedented issues.

Equifax's data breach may be the most serious, given that it covered 143 million consumers and involved reams of confidential information, but it wasn't the largest. Following are the biggest to date.

International payments will only get more complex as faster payments take hold globally, steering banks and money movers to establish central hubs for handling cross-border transactions.

MobilePay, Danske’s digital-pay subsidiary, wants Nordic banks to offer a single payment platform to counter challengers like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Amid a series of breaches, banks and payment services companies would be far better served by building solutions and programs that work toward instilling consumer confidence, instead of creating situations that continually erode trust, writes Madeline Aufseeser, CEO of Tender Armor.

As the U.S. continues to shape its faster payments options over the next few years, the connections for such systems have to be able to deliver more information and services with every payment.

Klarna’s instant online financing for purchases is gaining a foothold in the U.S., where the Swedish company is testing a subscription-based financing approach starting with golf clubs from TaylorMade Golf.

Meituan Dianping, China’s largest group-buying and restaurant reviews service, is said to be close to finalizing a deal to raise at least $3 billion from investors including Capital Group, according to people familiar with the matter.

Numerous data sources provide insight on the growth of this new paradigm in payments and some indication of how consumers can be motivated to prefer a specific payment instrument over others.

International sourcing is stressing businesses that are already too reliant on paper-based payment methods, argues Hyperwallet's Tomas Likar.

Hawk Incentives, Blackhawk Network’s incentive card division, now enables Mastercard prepaid cards distributed in promotions and incentives to be added to third-party mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay.

Until recently, many of the fraud prevention tactics employed by organizations have added to, not reduced, customer friction across the buying cycle, writes Michael Lynch, chief strategy officer at InAuth.

Over time, alternative forms of payment will become more of the norm, according to U.S. consumers' predictions.

Electronic payments offer hospitals and practices a quicker, more efficient, trackable and safer way to collect, writes Jeffrey Brown, president of VPay.

Diane Offereins manages relationships with 1,000 merchants and 3,300 financial institutions.