Thursday , March 28, 2024

John Stewart

Starting as an editor on Bank Network News at Faulkner & Gray, John ultimately played a key role in starting, editing, and publishing many of F&G's flagship publications, including Credit Card Management, Card Technology, Card Marketing, and Collections & Credit Risk. Before co-founding Boland Hill Media, John was a group publisher at Thomson Media responsible for a $10 million division embracing magazines, newsletters, and Web sites.

Goldman Faces Some Hard Decisions As It Confronts Its Position in Consumer Credit Cards

The pressure at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to exit, or at least radically modify, its consumer-credit and payments businesses appears to be mounting. At least some executives at the company are pushing senior management to exit credit card deals with Apple Inc. and General Motors Corp., The Wall Street Journal …

Read More »

SpotOn Retreats From Stadiums to Focus on the Restaurant POS Market

Count one less competitor in the market for advanced point-of-sale technology at stadiums. Shift4 Payments Inc. has agreed to buy SpotOn Transact Inc.’s sports and entertainment business for $100 million in a move that beefs up Shift4’s position in the burgeoning stadium market and marks a retreat by SpotOn from …

Read More »

In a Bid to Fight Chargebacks, Sift Gleans Data Via Integrations With PayPal and Adyen

Fresher data flowing directly from payments platforms could mean more effective remedies against chargebacks, some observers say. On Tuesday a major risk-management firm acted on that theory with a service that allows sellers to factor in information regarding chargebacks and disputes that flow through integrations with PayPal Holdings Inc. and …

Read More »

Square Founder Dorsey Will Have His Hands Full in Taking Over Square Again, Observers Say

The unexpected announcement late Monday that Square chief executive Alyssa Henry is leaving the company and being replaced by founder Jack Dorsey raises tough questions about how the strategy and direction of the huge point-of-sale payments company might change, experts say. Dorsey, a key founder of what was then called …

Read More »

A Top Fed Official Points to Real Time Payments Progress While Eyeing Stablecoins Skeptically

The Federal Reserve seeks to work closely with private-sector instant-payment services and plans to carve out a regulatory role to govern developments in stablecoins, a top official at the Fed said Friday. The remarks come in the wake of the Fed’s launch in July of its FedNow real-time payments network. …

Read More »

Visa Moves Blockchain Into Acquiring With a Pilot for Merchant Processors

Visa Inc., which has been working with blockchain-based currencies at least since the start of the decade, on Monday said it is starting to expand its cryptocurrency services into merchant acquiring, largely for cross-border transactions. The move, which Visa calls a “pilot project,” involves the major merchant processors Worldpay and …

Read More »

SoftPOS Offers Many Advantages, But a Few Drawbacks, Too

The recently developed ability to accept card payments on an ordinary smart phone, with no additional hardware, has electrified the payments industry. But the technology, known as SoftPOS, comes with complications that could slow progress, a panel of experts warned Thursday. SoftPOS, which as the name implies relies on specialized …

Read More »

BNPL’s Rapid Ascent Evokes Clashing Opinions on the Ethics of Short-Term POS Credit

The buy now, pay later craze, which took flight during the Covid pandemic, has turned into a $70-billion-plus segment of the payments industry. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t stirred controversy among acquiring-industry executives, some of whom manage versions of the point-of-sale credit product. That clash of viewpoints emerged Wednesday …

Read More »

Discover’s Management Stresses New Action on Merchant And Banking Issues

Discover Financial Inc.’s top brass early Thursday stressed that the company’s top priorities are regulatory compliance, customer experience, and long-term growth. The declaration, from temporary chief executive John Owen, was meant to reassure equity analysts and came in the wake of merchant-overcharge and banking-compliance issues that led up to the …

Read More »

Hochschild Exits Discover As the Card Network Confronts Fallout From an Overcharge Issue

John Owen, a retired banker and member of Discover Financial Services Inc.’s board of directors, has been appointed interim chief executive and president, replacing Roger Hochschild, who resigned Monday after five years running the company. Riverwoods, Ill.-based Discover announced Hochschild’s departure following the card network’s disclosure in an earnings call …

Read More »
Digital Transactions