Wednesday , December 24, 2025

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.

With a Loss Before Britain’s High Court, Visa And Mastercard Face an Interchange Reckoning

Merchants in the United Kingdom won an important battle against interchange fees on Wednesday but it remains uncertain just how much that will mean to them in terms of remuneration from Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. The case also could have ramifications for similar action in the U.S. market, some …

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BitPay Launches a Prepaid Mastercard to Bring Spending Utility to Bitcoin And Other Cryptos

Bitcoin may be the most popular cryptocurrency, but acceptance of any digital currency is limited to just a few thousand merchants. Crypto processor BitPay Inc. on Thursday introduced a solution with a service that lets users spend their holdings via a prepaid Mastercard that features an EMV chip and contactless capability. …

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Eye on Reopening: Tech Startups Hope To Meet an Overarching Need for Contactless Payments

As businesses reopen in the United States and abroad, many are looking to modernize their payments flows to minimize cash and maximize touch-free digital payments. Tech startups are stepping up in hopes of meeting the need. Late on Tuesday, a 5-year-old startup called Squire Technologies Inc. announced it had raised …

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Store Failures Will Spike as Merchants Wrestle With Covid-19’s Wreckage, a Researcher Predicts

Despite tentative signs of an economic recovery from the coronavirus-induced depression, some experts are forecasting a gloomy outlook for store closures as the year plays out and merchants struggle with debt loads and a consumer shift to e-commerce. At least 20,000, and as many as 25,000, stores will likely shut …

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Varo Money Closes a $241 Million Round as It Closes in on a National Banking Charter

Varo Money Inc., a 5-year-old mobile-banking and payments startup that’s closing in on a national banking charter, raised $241 million in a Series D round that closed Tuesday. The round, co-led by Gallatin Point Capital and The Rise Fund, will help the San Francisco-based Varo expand its financial-product offerings and …

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Worldpay Enlists Forter to Arm for a Potential Surge in Online Crypto Trading Fraud

Online trading of cryptocurrencies has become a hot market, and the recent online activity driven by Covid-19 fears has only added fuel to that trend. In response, the big merchant processor Worldpay, along with Forter Inc., a provider of fraud-prevention technology, on Wednesday introduced a service that will cover crypto …

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How PayPal’s Case Against the CFPB Could Spawn ‘Uncomfortable’ Results for Payments Players

It was easy to lose track of it in the midst of all the impacts of the novel coronavirus, but a crucial federal lawsuit filed six months ago still hangs over the payments industry, carrying far-reaching implications for nearly all players. It’s PayPal Holdings Inc.’s  action against the Consumer Financial Protection …

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Following The Third Halving in Its History, Is Bitcoin in for Yet Another Wild Ride?

Three weeks after an automated slashing of the reward cryptocurrency miners collect to process Bitcoin transactions, average prices are up while transaction fees have slipped. With respect to the price of Bitcoin, at least, this result follows an historical pattern. On May 10, the Bitcoin miner’s reward was cut in …

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Green Dot Links With Welcome Technologies to Bring Banking Services to Hispanic Immigrants

Green Dot Corp.’s new chief executive, Dan Henry, made no bones earlier this month about the strategic importance of the company’s bank, and now a new banking-as-a-service program from the Pasadena, Calif.-based company shows how that asset can be deployed to win the loyalty of one of America’s largest immigrant …

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As Restrictions Lift, Parking Apps Look to Serve Cooped-up Consumers Who Want Touch-Free Payments

Pundits have argued for weeks that the Covid-19 pandemic is shifting consumer payment habits away from anything that requires touching publicly available devices, and now that trend is showing up in that most mundane of activities, parking a car. To be sure, parking transactions even via a mobile app have …

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