Payments

Germany's state-owned development bank KfW, which gained publicity for erroneously transferring hundreds of millions of euros to Lehman Brothers the day the U.S. firm filed for bankruptcy, has done it again.

Technology never stands still, and even the most successful mobile wallets in the market need to keep pace with the needs of consumers and merchants. A few are making changes that position them for new markets and platforms in the near future.

Rent is one of the few payment types where automation has made very little headway, still relying heavily on mailed checks that the landlord deposits in person at a bank. One strategy to change that is to borrow a concept from the gig economy, in which the payment rides along with other services.

Esso gas stations in Canada have launched the Speedpass+ mobile payment app through Imperial Oil, giving motorists the option to pay for gas through their smartphones.

Starbucks customers will soon be able to send Starbucks gifts to other iOS device users via Apple Inc.’s iMessage platform with Apple Pay.

In the shift to online and mobile shopping, one group often left out is the 65 million Americans with poor or no credit. But as more retail categories like furniture move online, a growing number of e-commerce merchants is adding instant finance options for the subprime crowd.

As connected devices expand in use and add payment capabilities, retailers and technology companies will need to move fast to stay safe and ahead of the curve.

One in four acquirers say that how they approached Payment Card Industry security standard compliance caused them to lose merchant accounts.

Mastercard has named longtime exec Rama Sridhar to the newly created role of executive vice president, digital and emerging partnerships for the Asia Pacific region.

Within the payments industry, Braintree was a well-known technology provider even before it became a unit of PayPal in 2013. But as the company expands, it finds that its reach has its limits.

Amer Sajed, a 56-year-old Pakistan-born immigrant to the U.S., will step down from his role leading the bank’s credit card business in July after being spurred into activism by President Trump's stances on social and other issues.

Tencent Holdings Ltd. is planning to spin off its e-book business as it boosts spending on payments and content to lure users and keep them glued to its WeChat service.

Some new data rules, such as the one in New York state governing cybercrime protection, require complex technology work to remain compliant. But the rules also leave room for outside help.

Royal Bank of Canada has long been enthusiastic about payment technology that most other banks usually see as long-term projects.

The rapid advancement of social media platforms into the payments and finance markets, as well as millennials' devotion to apps like Venmo, were major factors driving a 47% increase in the U.S. digital person-to-person payments market last year.

Shopify is making Klarna’s instant-financing offering available to merchants using Shopify’s e-commerce platform in nine international markets.

The underbanked rely on mobile access more than online or in-person contact. Therefore, the U.S. must follow developing countries’ leads and let consumers sign up for mobile-only accounts.

American Express Co., the biggest credit-card issuer by customer spending, paid Chief Executive Officer Ken Chenault $22 million for his work in 2016, a 19 percent increase from a year earlier.

When most of the payments industry was working to find a way to accommodate the Durbin amendment's routing rules for EMV debit cards, First Data acquisition target Acculynk had its attention focused elsewhere.

ID attacks have expanded quickly in the past year, partly due to the same kind of automation that companies use to manage a high volume of transactions.