Payments

American Express responded to the stresses from the decline in cobrand business with record ad spending and a focus on digital delivery to lure new customers and expand relationships with existing accounts.

Contrary to many third-party payment providers' practice of pushing customers to lower-cost payment rails, Regalii wants its end users to pay their bills with credit cards. The goal of this arrangement is, of course, to make money for banks.

Mobile apps still account for only about one percent of transactions. There are a few ways to increase adoption, such as targeting payment types that are already tough to make with cash.

The majority of small and medium-sized businesses in the U.S. and Europe express an interest in real-time payments, but very few are aware of the current options being tested and brought to market.

American Express Co. reported revenue that beat analysts’ estimates after a marketing campaign showed signs of encouraging more card spending after the loss of key partnerships.

E-commerce can bring many efficiencies to a retailer's operations, but in the legalized cannabis industry, payments must still be handled offline.

The deal with PayRange could expand consumer adoption of a mobile payments app for vending machines that uses a Bluetooth-enabled dongle that connects to a consumer's mobile app.

Large companies are starting to embrace bot technology, with Mastercard, MoneyGram and Western Union all announcing new services.

Subway, Fresh Direct and The Cheesecake Factory are among the first to use Masterpass-enabled bots on Facebook Messenger to sell their wares over social media.

Bottomline Technologies, which specializes in business payments, is the latest to introduce a fraud-fighting solution for members of the Swift payment network.

Apple Pay still struggles to displace cash and cards in the U.S., but its recent integration with Western Union shows the mobile wallet has some untapped potential.

Ripple's distributed ledger platform has fed an appetite for cheaper and more efficient cross-border payments, but it may not measure up to the needs of a larger market. Ripple wants to scale its payment system to something resembling a large card network.

Check imaging reduces the need to handle paper, reduces clearing time and paves the way for mobile deposit and remote capture. However, this new functionality also means financial institutions take on greater risk from electronic acceptance, images in the cloud, and significantly reduced float times.

Jack Ma’s Ant Financial Services Group has deep enough pockets to win the bidding war against Euronet Worldwide for MoneyGram, but money may not be the deciding factor in this deal.

On Track Innovations will provide mobile EMV payment acceptance for the large cage-type vending machines that Outdoor Vending Solutions uses to sell bulk items at various sites within state parks in Texas.

Leaked documents appear to show NSA analysts were able to hack into Middle Eastern banks’ servers through the Swift service bureau EastNets. The same tools could conceivably be used by cybercriminals and nation-states with more sinister motives.

Ant Financial raised its agreed offer for MoneyGram International Inc. by 36 percent as the financial-services company controlled by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma tries to top a competing offer and overcome security concerns.

New mobile wallets and digital payment innovators are threatening banks' traditional relationships with consumers, forcing banking to respond.

A review of activity that long ago would not shed additional light on the scope of misconduct in Wells Fargo's retail banking unit, CFO John Shrewsberry said in an interview.

Earnings season kicked off with some banks capitalizing better than others on higher rates and still-low deposit costs. Banks will have to keep working on that balance as they contend with rising credit card losses, slower commercial lending and other issues.