POS and Retail

Issuers often offer several types of cards, but cling to older methods of communicating with users, contends BelWo's Doug Cox.

MercadoLibre, the e-commerce pioneer in Latin America now worth $28 billion, plans to invest more in its financial services and payments unit while opening more distribution centers and seeking partnerships to cut delivery time further, Tolda said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Sao Paulo office.

Digital services are gaining momentum, and traditional plastic cards are adding innovation to keep up after years of lagging, says FIME's Stéphanie El Rhomri.

Even the homeless are getting on board with contactless payments, through a new U.K. wide initiative between Swedish payments company iZettle and the Big Issue Foundation, which enables homeless people to become street vendors by selling its its Big Issue magazines.

The facial recognition development trail is dotted with starts and stops in its search for consumer adoption, from Mastercard's "selfie pay" to Apple's 3-D facial scan tests and the Federal Trade Commission's approval of biometric authorization.

Install payments and other financing options can offset the cost of health care, says InstaMed's Chris Seib.

Cybercriminals have become extremely adept at crafting emails that are indistinguishable from legitimate emails, says Valimail's Peter Goldstein.

Merchants with multiple Square accounts will have a new app designed to help analyze business data and trends through Square's partnership with business management company Domo.

Any entity questioning Libra runs up against the longstanding legal precedent set by private label gift and GPR, and myriad other prepaid account offerings, says payments consultant and researcher Richard Crone.

Small merchants often have to squeeze a hodgepodge of hardware onto their counters to manage government electronic benefit transfers, a distinct niche Novo Dia Group is working to solve with an investment from Square.